Chapter 97

Maybe he wasn’t the person Terrell obsessed over. But who he’d become was actually worthy of that attention. He wasn’t just a shell, filled with sorrow and nothingness. He felt whole now, or closer to it than he’d been in a really long time. Did Terrell actually prefer the broken, suicidal kid over a man capable of protecting his family? Was that Terrell’s sick game, to have a lover who needed him so badly that any sign of independent thought caused a problem?

Perhaps Dakota becoming a good person wasthe reason Terrell didn’t love him anymore. He didn’t really want a hero or a freethinker. He wanted a devotee or a moldable figure he could put on a pedestal.