She spoke with that weird Midwestern accent that seems like the speaker doesn’t have an accent.People from Michigan and Chicago who went to good sch...ols seem to speak with an unusual lack of regional attributes. They don’t sound like New Yorkers. They don’t sound Southern. Nor do they sound like they’re from the west coast.“Mr. Shotz,” she’d said. And for all I knew that she’d made this same call to give other people the same shitty news, I really felt that she was genuinely sad to tell me.Her. I just watched, fascinated, watching to see how it would happen.There was a role reversal going on here. I was her Daddy, her hero, the man who made the monsters go away, the one that could do anything she needed done. But not this time. It was her turn to take care of me, protect me. I didn't understand it, but I knew it to be true. All I had to do was just stand there, not move, and watch my little girl take care of me, save me. In that instant, I knew she was a killer, maybe the deadliest. We entered and climbed the stairs.Her aunt lived on the fifth floor, and Chloe was huffing by the time we got up. "I wish they'd get an elevator," she said.There were two doors on either side of the landing, one labeled "5A", the other "5B". Chloe headed toward 5A, and before she even knocked, the door opened revealing a woman.Her hair was blond, long, and darker than her niece's. Her skin was soft brown with a scatter of freckles, and while she hadn't the lean, hard muscles of youth, her body. Sure, I'll admit your handsome face and gorgeous body are what first grabbed hold of me. But so did your sweet innocence and the way you responded to me that day until I went all stupid on you. I blame myself that all this happened to you. I was just so stupid when we met and I was afraid of commitment. I did what a dumb person always does and ran." Do you really mean that?" he asked her hopefully. "Do you really and truly mean what you just said or are you merely humoring me?" I know just how.