"So who's been bothering you?" Harry asked. "What's been happening?"

I took a deep breath, then decided to just go ahead and tell him. I'd said I would; I couldn't back out now, or surely he'd tell Toni.

"Look, it's these text messages," I started. "I keep getting them, and I don't want them, but I can't make them stop; they're horrible."

I was gabbling, and Harry probably still didn't know what I was on about, but I was pretty hysterical by that point. I'd kept everything bottled up so long that now it was all coming out in a mad rush.

"And now everything's gone wrong," I continued, sobbing. "And I've let Toni down, and he wants me to meet him, tomorrow, and if I don't he'll come and get us and I'm so scared, and -"

"Wait, stop," Harry interrupted. "Who's been sending you the messages?"

I took another deep breath, and looked down. Maybe I shouldn't be saying anything after all; but I couldn't stop now.

"It's our dad," I told him.

"Your dad?" Harry repeated, staring at me. Neither me or Toni had ever really spoken about our past much; we weren't secretive about it or anything, but we wouldn't just talk about it unless it was important or we got asked directly.

"Yeah," I nodded. "My dad."

"Wait, so why has he been texting you?" asked Harry. "What's he been saying?"

"It's sort of complicated," I tried to say how it was. "Toni and I haven't seen him since we went into care, two years ago. He used to scare us so much. He'd get angry sometimes, really angry. Not because he was drunk or anything - that would have been bad enough, but he knew exactly what he was doing. He was just evil. And he was worse with Toni. I'm not sure why, but I didn't get to him as much; maybe cos I was quieter. Dad used to lock her in the cellar if she'd done the slightest thing wrong, and he was always saying how she was horrible, a waste of space..."

I stopped, trying to think back. Why had dad hated Toni so much? Maybe it was cos she reminded him of mum. Toni and I were so similar, though; it still didn't make sense why he'd like one of us but not the other. Thinking back, though, I realised that maybe we hadn't always been so similar. Everything we'd been through had brought me and Toni closer together, but the way dad had treated Toni had also made her quieter, while I'd become more confident. I supposed it had levelled us out.

"Your dad sounds horrible." Harry looked shocked.

"He could be, sometimes," I agreed. "But he wasn't always. Sometimes he could be lovely, just friendly and funny like dads should be. And no matter how mean he'd been, he always managed to make us think that he was sorry, and it had been our fault. He knew just how to make us trust him. And often he was so kind to us. He got Toni a pet rabbit years ago, and he used to take us out on trips, to the cinema, or shopping. And he was nicer to me than he was to Toni. So I started to think I'd remembered him wrongly. And after I came to the dumping ground, I started to wonder sometimes if he'd really been that bad. I mean, he was my dad. Maybe he deserved another chance."

"But he sounds really mean," Harry argued. "What about what he did to Toni?"

"I know," I told him. "But I got thinking, how he only started being mean after mum left. He had to bring us up, all on his own, and it wasn't really his fault that he sometimes got stressed. And I just remembered how lovely he could be, and I missed him. So I looked him up on the internet, and I found his phone number on his Facebook account. I just thought I'd text him, and tell him how Toni and I were doing. I didn't think it would do any harm."

"So what happened?" Harry asked.

"Well, he wrote back. He was nice at the beginning, but after about a week he started going on about how bad social services were, for taking us away. And he said that it was all Toni's fault, and that we wouldn't have got taken away if she hadn't spread lies about him. Which is rubbish; Toni only told her best friend some things. But she told her mum, and they got involved... anyway, dad was really angry about that. So in the text messages, he started going on about how they were wrong. And that I should run away with him."

"Wait, what?" Harry interrupted. "He wants you to go back to live with him? After the way he treated you?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "And I did text back, and say that I wasn't sure if I wanted to yet. But he kept asking why. So I had to say that I was happy here, happier then I'd been with him. And that's when he got angry. He started saying that he was going to come and get me, and that I didn't have a choice."

"Yeah, but you can still say no, right?" Harry said. "I mean, he can't force you."

"He can, though," I sobbed. "I don't know how to say no. I'm scared of him."

I thought about how angry dad got, how mean he could be. He'd never even done anything that bad to me, but he still managed to scare me, even now.

"He kept texting me, nearly every day," I told Harry. "He said he'd tell me when he was going to get me. And this morning he sent me another message. He said he's coming tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Harry repeated. "What are you going to do?"

"That's just it, I don't know," I said. "But, Harry, I do sort of want to go. I mean, after everything that's happened, he's still my dad. So maybe I should go to live with him. It might be different, this time."

"Yeah, but..." Harry looked doubtful.

"Look, Harry, I still love him," I said. "Even after everything. I might be happy, with him."

"So are you going to go?" he asked.

I thought about it again. Dad could be so unpredictable, but still... I just didn't know what I wanted, and how I could get out of it if I wanted to stay at the dumping ground. It was the first time I'd had to make my own choice, and I didn't know how I could do the right thing.

"I don't know what to do," I muttered. "The thing is, dad says I have to go without Toni. He only wants me."