The letter from Stanford arrived on a Thursday, the same thick envelope that had been sitting on Liam's desk for two weeks, unopened. He had told himself he wasn't ready, that he needed more time to think, that there were too many other things to worry about. But the truth was simpler: he was afraid.

Afraid to hope. Afraid to dream. Afraid to believe that he could have a future that wasn't defined by his father's violence, his mother's suffering, his own desperate need to protect his ...