AUTHOR'S POV
The backyard remained silent.
The morning breeze rustled through the leaves of the towering oak trees at the edge of the property, but the sound was distant, almost foreign. The birds that had been chirping in the bushes just moments before had gone quiet, as if the entire world was holding its breath.
Nobody spoke.
The tension that had threatened to tear the yard apart only minutes ago had evaporated, replaced by a heavy, suffocating sorrow.
David’s legs seemed to give out beneath him. The anger that had kept him upright, the desperate defiance that had fueled his stride through the front gate, was entirely gone. He sank down, his knees hitting the damp grass, before he finally sat flat on the ground.
His head was bowed so low his chin nearly touched his chest.
His sho
