“Are you ready for tomorrow?” she asks, taking a seat at the small desk in the corner.
“Like you said yesterday, I’ve been ready to go. I know my dad thinks I’ll fall back on the pills, but that’s not the case. It’s never been the case, but he’s convinced he knows me better than I know myself.” Seriously, what does this woman expect me to say?
“Yes, I would agree with you there. Honestly, I’m not sure you ever belonged here. I think you have some issues that you do need to talk to someone about, but they’re not related to your problem when you were younger. And that is what concerns me about you leaving.” She picks at the corner of one manicured finger before continuing. Fucking shrinks. “You haven’t mentioned anything about the fact that your father hasn’t come to any of the family sessions and has someone else picking you up tomorrow.”
Just wonderful. She’s seriously going to push the daddy issues now. As if I don’t realize that I’m a ticking time bomb when it comes to that man. “It’s nothing new. As soon as I turned fourteen, he decided I was old enough to take care of myself and I have. He didn’t want to be a single father and so he wasn’t once he thought I should be self-sufficient. Then I went through my ‘rebellious phase’ as he puts it and suddenly he jumped in, but it’s always been an act to him.”
A small ache forms inside my chest. It’s the tiny corner of my heart that will always wish I was daddy’s little girl. That’s what sucks the most, knowing that I fooled myself into thinking I was something special to him and then having it ripped away from me.
“Who’s picking me up, anyway?” I ask, wondering why this is the first time I thought to ask. Probably one of the lackeys from his office. There are plenty of people more than willing to kiss my father’s ass if they think it’ll earn them brownie points in his eyes. Little do they know that Gavin Pratt uses that to his full advantage.
Doctor Maxwell flips open a small notebook, looking at her notes. “It says here that his name is Liam Caprese.”
Acknowledgments
Without a doubt, this is the hardest book that I’ve written to date. There are so many people who have talked me off the ledge when I swore I wasn’t brave enough to hit publish because it’s so much different than anything I’ve ever done before.
Debi, Kristen and Nikki, you three are my bubble. You are my sanity. Not only did you calm me down and let me work through a million and one “what-if” scenarios, you allowed me to rip your hearts out time and time again and you kept coming back for more. I’m not sure what I would do without you!
Christine, Nichole, and Jen, thank you for coming on board to help with this book! I’m not sure where you’ve been all my life, but I’m grateful you’re here now!
And the other Jen… oh, did you have any clue what you were getting into when you met me? You’ve helped me so much with figuring out how to get the word out there, I don’t know what I would have done without you!
Anna, thank you for jumping in to weed out all of the issues with my book. I know you weren’t expecting the story you received, but it’s because of you that the book is ready to show other people!