CHAPTER 13: A Father Returns to His Own Name

No one called him confused after that.
Caleb helped him into the center truck, not the sedan. Elias paused with one boot on the step and looked back at Preston.
For a moment, the desert held both versions of the family: the one polished for annual reports and the one standing in exhaust, dust, and consequence.
“I gave you a place at my table,” Elias said. “You mistook it for the whole house.”
Preston had no clean answer left. Camilla turned away from him first, and this time Elias felt no pain in it.
The people who love access never stay long once access begins closing.