“Sure thing champ.

Let’s go.”

And with that, they walked away, leaving me standing there besides an empty van.

My eyes followed them.

My mind too slow to work.

My chest too tight.

And my nose closed up to even take in air, as I gasped through my lips, rubbing my chest in pain.

I could still hear Leah’s words clearly in my head, as she said the kids were hers and Killian.

And then, the most painful one.

For the first time in a long time now, I felt my eyes blurring with tears.

And they fell down into my open palm.

“My own son called me a stranger....