I Do
Hate
What goes through you when your daughter says she hates you and hopes you'll die is worse than any other kind of pain you've experienced. You think your father's beatings were pain? They were nothing. Of course it's just a phase. You've been given to understand that teenagers are like that. But most teenagers don't go around actively trying to sabotage their father's work, and most teenagers, when you tell them you're dying, don't say they don't care. You really expect that kind of news to pull her up short and make her reevaluate things.
Alex doesn't, and Ben grieves.
