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“Don’t tell me I don’t fucking care. I was trying to save the whole goddamn world.”

“It’s not your job to save the world. Dante and Dani are your fucking world. They should come first!”

The two of them went back and forth, both of them getting louder and angrier with each word they said.

“IT WAS ALL FOR THEM!” Danny screamed. I pulled Melissa back against my chest. She inhaled deeply before letting it out slowly.

“That’s always the excuse, isn’t it? I did it for them. I left them to keep them safe.”

“That’s exactly why I fucking left. You don’t know what I went through for them. You don’t know what I had to sacrifice,” Danny said.

“Sacrifice?” Melissa scoffed. “Sacrifice means putting them first. It means giving up your own dreams, your own life, to make sure theirs is everything it can be. You don’t walk away from them in the name of sacrifice.”

“Missy, please, let Danny explain,” Haizley tried again.

“Explain what? What could he possibly say other than, oh wait, Fucking. Club. Business?” She pulled away from Haizley. “Isn’t that the standard line?”

Melissa looked around the room. Everyone was quiet while she went on her tirade. Danny quietly seethed as she spoke the words we all used time and time again when we kept important things from our loved ones.

“Where were you, Danny?” she asked, deepening her voice when she answered her own question. ‘Club business.’ What were you doing, Danny? ‘Club business.’ When are you coming home, Danny? ‘Club fucking business.’ Fuck your club. And fuck you for putting the club before your family. It’s always the same fucking line, isn’t it, Gunner?”

Melissa spun on her brother. “Isn’t that what you told me? You had to walk away to keep me safe? Had to abandon the only family you had because of the club?”

“Mellie, that’s not—”

“That is what you said. That’s exactly what you said!”

“I didn’t want you involved in club shit.”

“Well, you fucking failed! Because here I am in the middle of the fucking club shit!”

Gunner walked over, standing in front of his sister. Tears streamed down her face. He took her face in his hands and said, “I was trying to protect you. Like I did when you were seven.”

“You didn’t protect me from shit!”

“I protected you from that asshole standing over your bed.”

“You didn’t. You stopped it from happening again.”

Gunner stepped back at Melissa’s revelation. I didn’t know what the fuck they were talking about, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to. I knew where my mind went, and I prayed to a God I didn’t believe in that I was fucking wrong.

“Princess,” I whispered, trying to pull her into my arms.

“No!” She stood there, panting, watching Gunner as he finally understood what she was saying.

“You’re fucking lying. I stopped that asshole from touching you.”

“Again. You stopped him from doing it again,” she repeated.

Gunner snapped his mouth closed; the room was silent but for the heavy breaths coming from Gunner as he wrestled with the truth his baby sister had delivered.

Shock overcame us all when Gunner, without a word, walked away from Melissa and out the front door.

“See that?” She pointed, yelling at Danny again. “That’s what bikers do. You’re all fucking cowards when it comes to feelings and emotions. Dani needs parents that will be there for her. People who won’t run when things get hard.”

“You don’t know what you’re fucking talking about. I didn’t run from my fucking daughter. I DID IT FOR HER!”

Danny pulled at his hair in frustration. I understood what he was feeling. At this point, I didn’t think anything he said would get through to Melissa. She was in too much pain herself. I wasn’t a fucking shrink like her and Haizley, but it didn’t take a genius to see she was hurting.