𝘔𝘖𝘕𝘖𝘊𝘏𝘖𝘗𝘚𝘐𝘚 ❁ 𝘑𝘑 𝘔𝘈𝘠𝘉𝘈𝘕𝘒 & 𝘒𝘐𝘈𝘙𝘈 𝘊𝘈𝘙𝘙𝘌𝘙𝘈

𝘌𝘐𝘎𝘏𝘛𝘠 𝘛𝘏𝘙𝘌𝘌

┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓
❝ but he was my dad ❞
┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛

𝘚𝘺𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘦'𝘴 𝘗𝘖𝘝

"A great man once said that if you're born poor, that's not your fault, but if you die poor, well, that's on you" Dad's voice fills the room as I watch the video he left for us from my seat between Sarah and Rose "I think, in the end, it was my fear of going back, of losing everything I have that made me lose sight of everything I am...everything I wanted to be"

"I killed Big John Routledge. I murdered Sheriff Peterkin. I shot Gavin Barnstead" Dad admits with a guilt stricken expression and Rafe shakes his head with tears in his eyes, backing away from where he was stood next to me.

I freeze up at his sudden movement and Rose seems to notice it, gently resting her hand on my shoulder with a simple reassuring nod.

"I know there's nothing I can do to ease the pain I've caused" Dad states "Many will say I took the easy way out. But I leave this world with the terrible pain of knowing that I leave behind my family, shattered by grief, broken by my sins"

"I don't expect you to forgive me for leaving you this way. I just pray you understand that...I can't go on ruining your lives anymore. This had to end" He declares.

"To all of you, I leave my estate, uh, to be divided equally, and I leave a love deeper than I could ever express" He explains with a sigh "Take care of each other"

The video ends and Rafe almost immediately grabs his glass of whiskey off the table and walks away, disappearing into the yard. Wheezie gets up from her seat, sniffling sadly and exits the room without a word. Sarah then angrily slams the laptop closed and I glance at Rose who just stares at the table with a dazed look, clouded with sadness.

My twin sister jumps up from her seat with a scowl and storms out of the room, slamming the door on her way out. I lean back in my seat, willing myself to go after my sisters or even just run away to the Pogues like I've always done in times of crisis. No matter how much or how loud my head screams at me, I don't move from the spot I'm in.

"What did Rafe do to you?" Rose's quiet voice brings me back from my thoughts and I'm too exhausted to lie, too dazed to argue.

"He tried to drown me" I admit, turning my head to look at my step mother.

"Oh my God" She mutters out with a horrified expression but I don't react, just looking back at the closed laptop "How are you feeling?"

"I don't know" I mumble truthfully.

"Sylvie, you know that I'm here for you. Right, sweetheart?" Rose asks me for than tells me and I nod numbly.

"I think I'm broken" I tell the woman.

"You're not broken" She counters.

"How would you know?" I unintentionally snap, my head whipping around to look at her and when I notice her freeze up, I take a deep breath "I'm sorry"

"No, that's fair. You're allowed to be angry with me. I haven't been a good parent" She assures me "I'm not your mother, but I was supposed to protect you and I didn't do that"