(Karen’s POV – Present Tense)

The walls hum with silence. The kind that feels alive—breathing, waiting.

I shouldn’t have come here. Every step from the car to this front door feels heavier, like I’m dragging the past behind me. But Yasmin’s words keep echoing in my head: It’s about Dre.

Not us.

Not our mother.

Not the truth we thought we were running from.

It’s about him.

My fingers tighten on the edge of Yasmin’s old leather-bound journal, the one I found hidden behind ...