Caden’s POV
The second Dad hangs up, I can’t move. My jaw clenches so hard it aches. I stare blankly at the phone like it just detonated in my hand. Baylee’s watching me with wide, questioning eyes, and I barely manage to link her through the haze in my brain.
We need to leave. Now. Pack the kids. Don’t ask. I’ll explain in the car.
She doesn’t argue. She never does—not when my voice sounds like that.
My mind’s spiraling, looping back over every second I spent with them. The way Megan curls her thumb when she’s nervous, the way James watches the room like he’s expecting a monster to come out of the walls. I thought they were sweet. I didn’t realize they were mine.
My full siblings. My blood.
The last pieces of my father that survived.
And they’ve been living in hell.
I want to burn
