Chapter 103

I know it’s such a dumb thing to react to. They’re just words, but it hit me in a way he never meant, and I can’t believe how crazily sensitive I am. I pull away from him at speed and glare through an instant wave of irrational tears.

“Don’t even…” I burst into full-blown sobs, and Arry’s face crumbles as it dawns on him what I immediately thought.

“Shit. Sophs, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry, baby, come here.” He hauls me back to him and holds me close. Smoothing down my hair and cradling me as he sways me, trying to soothe my upset back down again. Me and my stupid messy head, feeling weirded out by his talking about being my father. And you know? Sex, with us, and somehow it connects my brain to that, before. All that shit I put in my past.

I can’t even explain it. This is making me crazy, and the scars I thought I had faced are so raw again that I don’t know which way is up. My mom warned me that this could happen, that memories and feelings might be upr