Joanna Hathaway

It’s for those who burn unflinchingly with a loyalty forced into their veins from their first breath, a dangerous allegiance that can’t be ended or surrendered, not even for all the world, not even for peace

I wait for him to say more—what, I don’t know—but I wait. There’s always something like desperation when I’m standing a foot from him. Like maybe he’ll finally say the thing I need to
hear and life will make sense. Like maybe I’ll finally feel like his son.

Like maybe he’ll just pull out a gun and shoot me and get it over with.

But all he says

I resist the urge to wave a white flag and run out again