He ran through the woods like he’d been born to, weaving between trees with a speed and precision that made it hardto keep up. My boots slipped on patches of snow and ice, but I refused to let him out of my sight. Branches snagged at my jacket, scratching my face and hands, but I barely felt it. All I could see was Liam, his figure growing smaller in the distance, and the panic clawing at my chest drove me forward.
The trees thinned, and then we were in town. Liam darted between the quiet buildings, his boots slapping against the icy pavement. Christmas lights blinked cheerily in the shop windows, their warm glow a cruel contrast to the chaos unraveling in front of me. He wove through a less busy market square, past benches and lamp posts wrapped in garland. A group of revelers exiting a bar barely spared him a glance as he barreled past, and I shouted his name again, hoping, praying he’d stop.
But he didn’t.
I pushed harder, my legs burning as I struggled to keep up. He turned down a narrow alley, his silhouette briefly illuminated by a flickering streetlight before disappearing around the corner. As I followed, my boots skidded on the icy cobblestones, the alley closing in around me. The cold night air stung my face, and the sound of my breathing echoed in the narrow space, but all I could hear was the pounding of his footsteps ahead of me, growing fainter with each passing second.
“Liam, stop!” I shouted again, my voice breaking. “Please!”
But he didn’t stop. He didn’t even slow down. He was running from me, as though putting distance between us could erase everything he’d learned tonight. And as much as it tore me apart, I couldn’t blame him.
Still, I ran. Through the quiet streets and the glowing holiday displays, through the icy shadows of the town I’d sworn to protect. I ran because I couldn’t let him go. Becauseno matter what he thought of me or how angry or broken he was, he was my son.
As I ran, my breath came in short, wheezing gasps, each one feeling like it barely made it into my lungs. It was like being asthmatic, like every step was pulling me deeper into a panic I couldn’t escape. My legs burned, my shoulder throbbed, but none of it mattered. I couldn’t stop. Not when Liam was still out there, still running from me.
And then, unbidden, memories surged forward, choking me as effectively as the cold air stealing my breath.
Luke’s smiling face flashed before me. The way his eyes would crinkle when he laughed, the warmth in his voice when he called me by that nickname I’d always pretended to hate. For a moment, I could almost hear him and feel his hand in mine.
But then his face changed. The warmth drained from his eyes, replaced by something dark, something hollow. That wasn’t Luke anymore. It was the thing he’d become. The thing I’d had to stop. My hands, slick with sweat and blood, gripping the blade as I?—
I shook my head violently, trying to push the memory away, but it stuck, suffocating me as I kept running. My breath hitched, my chest tightening further as flashes of our life together smothered me. The way he used to hold Liam as a baby, the way we dreamed about the future. Things that felt like a lifetime ago. The life I’d destroyed with my own hands.
I stumbled, nearly losing my footing, but I forced myself to keep going. I couldn’t fall apart now. Not here. Not when Liam needed me, even if he didn’t realize it.
Through the haze of my thoughts, I suddenly saw him. My heart leaped, relief and fear crashing together in my chest as I saw him duck behind an alley ahead. I pushed harder, my legs screaming in protest, and when I reached the alley, I knew exactly where it led.
The park.
My pulse quickened further as I turned the corner, knowing he was heading straight for the open, empty expanse of the park. There wouldn’t be any cover there, no one to help if things went wrong. Just him, me, and the memories I couldn’t seem to outrun.
CHAPTER 11
Iran into the park, the sound of my boots crunching against the frost-covered grass loud in the stillness of the night. The icy wind bit at my face, and for a moment, all I could hear was the ragged sound of my breathing, each gasp cutting through the silence like a knife. My legs burned, my shoulder throbbed, but none of it mattered. I had to find him.
And then I did.
Liam was at the playground, his tall frame hunched over the edge of the wooden structure. He gripped his head with both hands like it was about to split in two. The soft glow of a nearby streetlamp cast a muted, golden light over him, making the scene feel surreal, like something out of a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from.
I stopped in my tracks, my chest tightening as I watched him. My heart screamed at me to run to him, to grab him and hold him, to make this all go away. But I couldn’t. Not yet. I had to be careful. I took a slow step forward, then another, my boots barely making a sound as I approached.
“Liam,” I said softly, my voice trembling. “You don’t understand?—”
He looked up then, and the expression on his face shattered what little resolve I had left. Pure, raw horror filled his eyes, his features twisted in a way that made my stomach turn. He looked at me like I was the monster he always thought only lived in stories, something dark and dangerous and unrecognizable.
I froze, my breath catching in my throat. “Liam,” I whispered again, my voice breaking. “Please, listen to me.”
But how could I tell him? How could I make him understand the truth—that the man he loved more than anything, the father he idolized, had tried to kill him? How could I look him in the eyes and tell him that Luke, the man who’d been our world, wasn’t the hero he remembered? That he’d become something dangerous, something I’d had no choice but to stop?
I couldn’t. It was better to let him hate me. It was better to carry that weight myself than to burden him with the truth that would break him.
Liam yelled suddenly, the sound raw and guttural, echoing through the empty park. His hands fell from his head, his entire body trembling with barely contained rage. The look in his eyes didn’t soften. If anything, it hardened.
I took a shaky step closer, my chest aching as I whispered, “Liam, please.”
But the distance between us felt insurmountable, and I wasn’t sure anything I said would ever be enough.
Liam’s face crumpled, his fiery anger dissolving into something much worse. Horror. His eyes widened, his shoulders slumping as though the toll of the truth was finally settling on him. He looked at me, his voice barely a whisper, trembling with the raw edges of disbelief.
