(Karen’s POV – Present tense)

I don’t sleep that night.

Every time I close my eyes, I see her name — Lillian Ward.

It’s burned into the back of my eyelids like a secret written in fire.

My birth mother.

A woman I never knew.

A ghost who somehow explains everything and nothing all at once.

Dre tries to hold me, but I can’t stop replaying Yasmin’s voice.

Her tone wasn’t cruel this time — it was trembling, real. That’s what unsettles me most.

Yasmin doesn’t tremble.

She ...