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Jake recoiled as if he had taken the punch himself.

"You couldn't!? Do you have any idea what we've been through!? Did you even consider the pain your supposed death inflicted on us? On Mother!?" Jake was shouting, and it was as if he hadn't realized it.

That stoked Jerald's anger. "You think I don't know that!? You think I didn't spend days in captivity thinking about how you, Mother, and Father were coping? Do you know how hard it was for me not to reach out, even after I got out? Do you have any clue what I endured in there...? What I'm still enduring? Damn you, Jake, you think staying away has been a picnic!? You think it's been a joyride?" Jerald found himself shouting too, unable to rein in his emotions.

"I was tortured for six months, Jakey, six agonizing months," Jerald whispered hoarsely, hurling the words at him, using the nickname he'd called Jake when they were kids.

"Tortured?" Jake stood there, his chest heaving.

He had thought the pain of Cherry being with other men was