Jonah's POV

The conversation with Maddox Whitlock drains every ounce of energy from me. The second I stepped into that orphanage fifteen years ago, I swore to sever all ties to my past. It was easier that way—to forget every person, every memory tethered to the life I left behind. But forgetting wasn’t possible. Not entirely.

Because unlike the other orphans, I wasn’t anonymous. I had a name. I had a past. And I had a mother.

A mother who passed ...