After the Storm: Midseason Episode 1 (Rising Storm) Read Online Free PDF

on with her life. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if she’s far happier without that scumbag. So yes, in the end they should all thank me.”
    “It’s not going to work like that, Dakota.” Her mother shook her head and stepped back. “When you need to come home, the door is always open.”
    She watched her mother walk back into the kitchen and a knot of anxiety settled in her stomach.
    What if her mom was right? What if she’d been fooling herself and all those people really had been looking up at her with disgust?
    “Hey,” a familiar voice said.
    Damn it. She should have been faster if she wanted to avoid a fight with her sister. Mallory was always disgusted with her so this wouldn’t be anything new. “Sorry, I have to leave for work. See you later.”
    Mallory moved in. “You don’t have to be there for another forty-five minutes, and we both know there’s no traffic to get through. Talk to me for a minute.”
    “About what?”
    Mallory’s eyes widened. Yes, Dakota knew that look. It was her sister’s “dumbass said what” look.
    Fine. She kind of deserved that look. “I’m fine. The world is still turning and the sun came up. I told the truth and I didn’t immediately explode into a fiery ball of flames.”
    Her sister’s lips curled up the slightest bit. “The town totally exploded, Dakota.”
    Dakota shrugged. “It had to be said.”
    “I agree.”
    “What?” Of all the things her sister could have said, that was not what Dakota would have guessed. She’d expected nothing less than rage from her sister. After all, Dakota had outed Mallory’s crush’s sister as the town slut.
    But was she? That was likely a word that was going to get thrown around, but what had Ginny Moreno done that Dakota wouldn’t do? And what the hell was wrong with her this morning that she was even thinking those thoughts?
    Patrick freaking Murphy. Sometimes she heard him in her thoughts. He’d kind of started voicing the thoughts in her head she didn’t like. The ones that made her worry she wasn’t in the right.
    Mallory moved to the old couch where they’d sat together and watched cartoons all those years ago. She sat down and patted the place beside her. “I said I agree that the truth had to come out.”
    All right, if her sister was going to be reasonable, she could, too. She sank down to the couch, remembering all the times she’d sat with her dad. Why did she have to miss him so much? Why did she have to feel so lost without him telling her every day how perfect she was?
    Because without his voice, she’d started to realize it was all one big lie.
    “I’m glad you see that. It wasn’t a fun thing to do.”
    “I do agree that the truth had to come out, but, Dakota, that wasn’t the way to do it.”
    Ah, there was the judgment. “What was I supposed to do? Write a tell-all novel?”
    “How about sitting down with Ginny and talking to her?”
    “Why would I do that?” The trouble was she knew why she should have done that.
    “Dakota, you and Ginny survived something. I know a lot of people are going to say you’re an adult and you made a choice. And you did, but he’s got so much experience. Tell me he didn’t manipulate you.”
    She could remember how he’d smiled at her that first night at the bar, how he’d treated her like she mattered when now she knew she hadn’t. Not for a second. “He knew how to play me.”
    “He knew how to play Ginny, too.”
    She hated the tears that threatened. “I wanted him, Mal.”
    “Of course you did. He was something new and different, and you want out of this town so badly you can taste it. Everyone knows that. Likely he knew that. You say you wanted him, but I think you mostly wanted to be important to someone. You know, someone who’s not your family.”
    Sometimes she wasn’t certain she was important to anyone including her family. Not since her father had left. It was kind of nice to sit and talk with her sister civilly. “How’s Luis