Chapter 222: The Price of Truth

LUMINA

The pain in my youngest son's voice nearly brought me to my knees. How could I explain to a five-year-old that love didn't always mean staying? That sometimes people made choices that hurt the people they cared about because they were hurting too much to see any other option?

"Riley does love you, sweetheart," I said, moving to kneel beside the couch where he sat between his grandparents. "But he's very confused and scared right now. He found out some things that made him feel like he couldn't trust us anymore."

"Because you killed his mama," Ollie said with the brutal honesty that...