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“You’re still fidgeting,” Jenner said. He cupped her face between his hands. “Immy, talk to us.”

“I just . . . I don’t want to be any more of a burden!” she yelled. “I shouldn’t be like this! It’s wrong. I don’t mean being a Little is wrong but I’m already so much work, I’m always sick, I can’t live alone, I can’t do much of anything! Useless just like my father always said! And I can’t even do the one thing he wanted me to do and have children.”

“What do you mean?” Jenner asked, going pale.

“The . . . the doctors once told me that they thought it would be pretty difficult for me to get pregnant, at least without help. Maybe I could with IVF, I don’t know.”

“Oh, baby,” Jenner whispered. “You’re so young and there’s lots they can do if you want to have a baby.”

“I know, I’m not even sure I do want that. It’s just . . . my father was so disappointed when I told him. This was about six months before he died. ‘Always a disappointment’ are the exact words he used.”

“Fucking bastard,” Sampson snapped.

“Yeah, he was,” she agreed. “I just . . . I don’t want you all to get sick of me. To wake up one day and regret that you ever took me under your wing. I was so lonely before you all came to the cult. I had no one but my shell of a mom and my bully of a father. I wasn’t allowed to play. Or to laugh. Or to smile. I had to work and work and work. Then you guys arrived. And life became happier. I still had to work, but I didn’t care because I knew I’d see you guys. And when my father would start telling me that I was dumb and useless and worth nothing more thanmy womb . . . well, those words would slide right off me because I’d think of the way Maeve would smile. Or how Cat would get all fierce. Or Sampson would grumble. Or how Abe would hide me behind him. Or Isaiah would sneak me out of the house. Or how Jenner would sneak into my room and sleep on the floor and keep me safe.”

“Actually, Immy, you were the one keeping me safe,” Jenner told her.

She blinked at him. “What? No, I . . . how?”

“Because my father was an abusive asshole who hurt me,” he told her bluntly.

She sucked in a breath. She’d always known that Sampson and Jenner’s father was a complete asshole, but . . . he’d hit him?

“He hurt you?” she whispered, letting the pain of that fill her voice. “Hit you?”

“Yeah, baby. He did. He was a complete bastard who fucked with my head. Who is still fucking with my head and I’m trying to exorcise him. Truth is, I preferred him hurting me physically to what he would say to me. The way he would twist everything in my head.” He closed his eyes for a long moment.

“Jenner, no,” she said, letting out a sob.

“I didn’t tell you this to upset you or for you to feel sorry for me.” Jenner shook his head, opening his eyes to stare at her as he kneeled in front of her.

Tobias moved slightly to the side so that they were both in front of her.

Cupcakes.

This was another dream of hers.

Lord. It was almost too much. Although in her dream she wasn’t about to cry because of what Jenner was telling her about his past.

God, she was hurting for him.

What right did she have to let her father have this hold on her when she hadn’t experienced an eighth of what Jenner had been through?

And maybe Sampson.

She glanced up at Sampson. “The sperm donor beat me to toughen me up. I never knew he was hurting Jenner, though. If I had, I would have lost my fucking mind.”

“That was another reason why I hid it,” Jenner said. “Why I’d sneak in with Immy. To protect her, to protect you, and so I could get out of that house and away from that asshole.”

“Jenner,” she said again and tried to slide forward, toward him.

He held up a hand and that hit her hard in the stomach. Didn’t he want her to touch him?

“Don’t touch me yet, baby,” he told her. “I’ve got some things to say and you need to hear them. Because from what I heard you have some serious misconceptions about your place in our lives. About your importance. I don’t know where you got this idea that you could be a burden to us, but you are so wrong it’s not funny.”

She blinked rapidly, hating that she felt like crying. She glanced up at Sampson and Abe who were standing behind Tobias and Jenner. To her surprise, Tobias moved and sat next to her.

“But I am a burden,” she whispered. “Look at what just happened. I’ve been sick for days and you all had to stop everything to take care of me. That’s not what a friend should do. I shouldn’t rely on my friends to nurse me when I’m ill. I shouldn’t be a constant drain on you guys.”