Page 13 of The Voices are Back

When Aodhan and I first started dating, my dad was truly surprised that I was “actually able to pull a guy like Aodhan.”

I guess maybe I had been surprised, too.

I mean, obviously, Aodhan had been gorgeous. If it hadn’t been for the fact that we’d been connected since birth, I’m fairly sure that my dad would’ve thought I’d paid him to be something to me just to get my father off my back.

See, my father had grand disillusions. He felt that a woman’s place was in the kitchen, with babies on her hip and at her feet, with very little life experience and the knowledge that her husband was king.

If I was being completely honest, that was why my mother had tried to kill herself.

My father.

Or, my father’s ideals.

I didn’t think that my mom had any clue what she was marrying into until she’d been forced to have her fifth child, which turned out to be a set of twins.

Though, my parents were very unlucky when it came to children.

My first brother was stillborn. My second and third died of childhood illnesses because my father refused to allow my mom to take them to the hospital for fevers that could’ve been handled with antipyretics that he refused to allow them to have. My fourth sister, though she’d made it through the home birth, had Down syndrome. Upon seeing that, my father had decided that she would need to be put up for adoption because no St. Pete could be seen as anything less than perfect.

Then, my mother taking matters into her own hands, had decided that everything needed to end.

Including mine and my sister’s lives.

Only, she hadn’t succeeded. My mother and I had survived her suicide attempt.

And I’d had to live with my father for the rest of my informative years.

Luckily, early on, I’d learned that I needed to take care of myself because my father wouldn’t.

He saw anything modern medicine as the devil, and even went as far as to shun teeth cleanings.

At the age of nine, I’d had to make my own dentist appointments, doctor appointments, and go to them without my father’s help.

The one saving grace was my grandmother.

My mom’s mom was the best person in the world, and it’d ruined my life when she’d died.

Luckily, that was at the age of sixteen when I could make my own life choices.

Unluckily, that’d been when my issues stemming from my diseases started popping up.

I’d hidden them the best I could, which had been why Aodhan hadn’t realized they’d gotten as bad as they had when he’d broken it off with me.

My father refused to admit that anything was wrong with me, and even went as far as to say that I faked it.

I didn’t fake it.

Not even close.

Who the hell would wish to be vulnerable in her lowest of lows in the world that we were now living in? Certainly not me.

I entered the doors and intended to make a wide turn to the right, but came to a stuttering halt when right inside the front door stood Aodhan, my dad, and my stepmother, Lizzie.

I knew without my eyes even adjusting to the darkened room that they’d marked me even before I’d made it inside.

However, I decided to play dumb and continue straight ahead, my goal to get past the checkout lanes and head into the cold section for my milk.

But my stepmother, who I decided was absolutely clueless when she wanted to be, called my name. Loudly.

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