hadn’t been born, Father would never have been so
cruel to Zack and me. I would have been his only
daughter. But I could never compete with Missie.
I was never good enough for Father, not as
pretty as Missie, nor as flirtatious and simpering. I’ve
got a sharp brain and a sharper tongue, which gets me
in endless trouble. Father hit me for mouthing off at
him. I knew he would hit me, but that didn’t stop me.
Those were the only times he paid attention to me. I’d
look into his eyes as the blows fell like stinging rain
upon my body, seeing behind the fury a cold gleam of
disappointment and loathing.
Zack tried in his fumbling yet endearing way to
console me. “Well I like you a lot better than Missie.
She’s so selfish and stuck-up, acting like she’s special.
You’ll always be my favourite sister, Jill.”
I appreciated Zack’s words of comfort, though
they didn’t come close to filling the deep cavern of
painful longing created inside me by Father’s
dismissive cruelty. So I guess it’s no wonder I went off
the deep end when I heard about the baby. The time
had come for me to do something about this
intolerable situation. If only Missie’d had the decency
to lie or run away. Even just to spare Mamma’s
feelings alittle….
But then, Missie always was a selfish bitch. Bad
enough she’d been sleeping with Father for the last
five years, since she was thirteen. She never tried to
keep it a secret, either. She knew, as we all did, that
Mamma was helpless to do anything about it. But she
didn’t even try to hide the pregnancy or pretend the
father was someone else. She laughed in my face when
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