Viv:
Three months had passed since Knox and I left the house in their hands. Three months of ocean air, winding roads, sunrise coffees, and nights tangled in motel sheets. It was freedom, the kind I didn’t think people like us ever really got. And yet, sometimes—especially in the quiet stretches of highway or when the wind stilled against the surf—I missed the chaos of a full house. The laughter, the healing, the way those girls slowly turned the place from a shelter into a home.
We were parked on the edge of a cliff that overlooked the Pacific. Knox was tinkering with the bike, some excuse to keep his hands busy while the world slowed down around us. I sat on the rocky ground, legs crossed, hoodie tucked over my bare thighs, when my phone buzzed in my pocket.
Callie.
I stared at her n
