-Five Days Later-

The car door opened, and a wave of warm evening air brushed my face. I didn’t want to be here, but I had to- For My Stepfather.

In his words ‘People love to vote for a man with a stable family’ and that was the reason why we were all here- with my mother.

The flashes started almost immediately — the clicks, the murmurs, the “Mr. Carter!” that rang through the crowd like waves crashing over each other.

My stepfather stepped out first, composed as ever in his navy suit, his politician’s smile perfectly in place. The crowd waiting outside the Los Alamos Hills Civic Center erupted...