Chapter Twenty-Nine

**WARNING Sexual Content Included in Chapter**

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After agreeing to listen to Abel’s story, they climb out of the car and walk over to the nearby children’s park, barren at the time with everyone else in school or at work at this hour. They pick a picnic table near the sandlot and sit down.

He takes a deep breath and contemplates where to start, still unsure of where the sudden feeling of wanting to share with her has come from. Since coming to Bisbee, Harken has been the only person outside his family with whom he has confided his secrets and stories with.

“I’ll start by sharing that the father I have with me here is not my biological father, to give context to the story. He helped my mother and I get away from the abusive man I once called my father, the man we escaped Cairo because of. He is a military man with a high ranking and even here it’s no secret how corrupt the government-run military is in Egypt. My mother had met my father online as j