77

KANE After I return from feeding my father to the sharks, Dahlia’s disappeared. Again. She’s vanished right from my grasp. Fucking again. I came back to tell her the truth. To assure her that everything is forgiven. In fact, there’s nothing to forgive. After last night, after the way she slept peacefully in my arms, I figured it was time to start with a clean slate. I can’t force Jude to like her, and he probably never will, but I can protect her from him. She has nothing to do with his obsession anyway. Her sister does, but her sister is practically dead. It might hurt, but she’ll eventually accept that reality. She’ll accept that I’m all she has. The only one she can have. But she’s not here. She even left her phone behind. Julian goddamn Callahan came by and talked to her, and she left with him. That’s what my mother and Samuel said. That’s what I watch on the house’s security footage over and over again, on a damn loop. I can’t stop looking at the way she trudges behind him, her mo