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Tears stream down her face as she trembles uncontrollably. “I just…I just want you to be safe. I hate for anything to happen to Dahlia either. She’s been the only color in my life lately, and I begged Grant to let her go, but you know he never listens to me. I don’t want her to be hurt, but I would hate losing you more.” “You already lost me fifteen years ago, Mother.” I let her go and push past her as I stride through the mansion, down the dim halls with the ugly dark-green wallpaper. Throughout the years I’ve been walking these halls, I’ve only felt numbness and, lately, the consolation that this will soon come to an end. But right now, my muscles are tense, my steps wide. I’ve never rebelled against my father, and it wasn’t because I couldn’t. After I hit puberty, I became as big as he is and even more muscular. If I’d wanted to hit him, I would’ve. But violence is not my style, and I refused to be molded into a copy of him. So I connived behind closed doors. I gathered all the inte