CHAPTER 40 BURYING THE DEAD

In her dream, her father was just as she had wanted. He cared very much for her and boosted her self-esteem. He never missed a game and never condemned her with his eyes. Most of all, he never sold her out to keep his company and name. He had been sorry before he died. She saw it in his eyes, heard it in his voice, and felt it in the air around him. She had never seen him so frail and tired in all her life. The first tears she would cry for her father finally dropped. And in its wake, several others flowed like a torrent down her cheeks. She was broken and wounded. Wounds she feared would never heal, and scars she worried would never disappear but remain as a constant reminder of the things she never had Having heard her silent cries, Jake woke up and gathered her in his arms. Samantha cried some more in the arms of her lover and husband, not for her father, but for the things she never got to have or feel because of him. There were days she'd wish she were among the poor folks on