Page 105 of Juliet's Echo

Shaking my head, I rolled my eyes.

“Talking about I gotta listen to him now.”

A laugh escaped me.

“Now, he knows better than that.”

The breeze shifted around me and I hugged myself tighter, embracing the comfort.

“They took all this shit pretty well though.”

My smile softened.

“I mean, they sorta kinda already knew. They just didn't know Echo was my dad.”

The words sat heavy between us and my smile disappeared.

A year later and it still hurt.

Not just Echo's hidden identity and damn sure not what Sloane did to me. My mind still hadn't gotten to the stage where it fully acknowledged that happened, let alone developed post-traumatic stress disorder about it.

“How could he keep that from me?”

The tears arrived before I could stop them, and the silence returned. So did the warmth in the air. The question wasn’t new. I’d asked it hundreds, maybe thousands of times already.

“I know he thought he was protecting me, but look what happened anyway.”

My eyes squeezed shut and tears slid into my ears.

“I know it’s wrong to feel this way, but sometimes I’m mad at him because he kept my mother away from me for so long.”

Quickly, I wiped my face. I didn’t want her to see me cry. Bad enough, she sat through these visits letting me pour my heart out while sometimes saying absolutely nothing back.

“I mean, he didn’t do anything nearly as bad as Sloane, but he still robbed me.”

My throat tightened.

“I deserved to know my mother.”

The words came out stronger this time.

“I deserved to know what my mother looked like, her favorite foods, her favorite songs. What made her laugh.”

Another tear rolled down my cheek.

“I deserved to know how much Choo-Choo loved my mother because maybe then I would've understood sooner why he loves me so hard. To no extent. To no limits. Just... hard.”

For several moments, neither of us spoke.

After a while, the cool air returned and I hugged myself once more.

Comforting.

Then I laughed.

A real, hearty laugh through my pain.

A memory surfaced immediately, and it was one I had to tell her.