Chapter 180
~ Hailey ~
I was still crying. Couldn't stop even though my tears had long since stopped providing any relief. They just kept falling while my mind replayed memories I'd tried so hard to bury.
I reminisced back to when my father had married Yvonne's mother.
I'd been so young. 13 years old. Still grieving my own biological mother who'd died three years earlier from cancer.
My father had been lonely. Broken. Desperate for companionship and for me to have a mother figure.
Yvonne's mother had seemed nice enough. Warm. Welcoming. She'd made my father smile again after years of sadness.
And Yvonne... Yvonne had been ruthless to me during the marriage. Cruel in ways that children can be when they know adults aren't watching closely.
She'd pinch me where bruises wouldn't show.
