Ethan’s POV
Sleep never came, I tried. God knows I tried but every single time I closed my eyes, I saw her again… My mother, crying. The memory came in fragments at first, distorted by time and exhaustion, but as the night deepened, it became clearer. Sharper, painfully vivid.
I was seven years old again, standing inside the private terminal at the airport while security moved around me urgently. Men in black suits speaking into earpieces, weapons hidden beneath jackets. Tension thick enough that even at that age, I understood something terrible had happened.
My mother knelt in front of me despite wearing an ivory dress that probably cost more than some people’s salaries, her hands trembled while fixing my collar.
“You’ll be safe there.”
I remembered frowning immediately. “I don’t wan
