Caleb's pov

I set Verity down gently on her bed, the soft sheets swallowing her fragile frame. Her lashes fluttered once, and then she slipped deeper into the safety of sleep. For a long moment, I just stood there, watching her chest rise and fall, every breath proof that she was still here, still fighting, still surviving despite all the cruelty this world had dealt her.

My chest tightened, an ache I didn’t even try to fight spreading through me. How had they—her family—kept her ...