It was only after several years had passed that the truth settled in. I hadn’t just raised my sons — I’d slowly watched them give pieces of themselves to Logan. No one stole them. No one made demands. He simply earned their trust, day by quiet day. There was never a formal handoff, but somewhere between shared meals and bruised knuckles, Logan became a part of their rhythm. And honestly, I couldn’t bring myself to be bitter about it.
But then Austin came for my boy.
There was no warning. No drawn-out threat. Just a moment that tore a hole through the middle of everything I’d built. Samuel vanished, ripped away, and the silence that followed wasn’t peaceful — it was suffocating.
Logan didn’t stall or second-guess. As soon as the situation was confirmed, he got full clearance to do what n
