”Both of them immediately started back in on Liya, who threw her head back and let out a noise that seemed part moan and part complaint about her tr...atment. Perhaps fortunately for Liya, Dad turned into the park then.“Where in the park,” he asked.Rhee answered, “Go all the way back and take the first right turn. Our table, uh ... our pavilion is at the end of that road.”Halfway down the road after the right turn, a car passed us heading out. I looked at Rhee, who was looking at me. She nodded. For Mary's sake, I trynot to wince as I hear my heavy heels clomp across the polished woodenfloor."Hey," I say, sitting down cross-legged next to Mary. "Is- is thereanything I can do?" Mary tearfully shakes her head."I've ruined everything," Mary sobs. "I was going to go to university,we were going to be a rich and famous group of models... I'm so sorry!"Immediately, I lean forward and embrace the distraught girl."You've ruined nothing!" I insist. "None of that crap's important,what's important. This won’t take place in one day, but if you are willing to be patient and see this through to the end, then all of your problems will disappear and be replaced with nirvana.”“How the hell am I supposed to do that?! Don’t you think I’ve seen every shrink and therapist in this goddamn state?! Elsa’s death was my fault, I can never fix that, and I will never be able to overcome what that means. Even if I can get others to forgive me for the pain I inflicted on them, how can I forgive myself for. I wasn't hungry at least not for food, what I wanted was Duke. That hadn't been his real name at birth, no one knew what he had been named but that's what he went by since he came to town and hooked up with Alison.They'd been going out for six months but I knew he had a wandering eye. I had seen him watching me earlier when we'd been outside on the patio. I'd been chatting it up with Sonia a friend from high school and he'd been cooking some hamburger patties. But he'd been watching ... a smile.