CHAPTER 14: Headlights Do Not Forgive

The convoy turned slowly, taking the road back toward the city.
From the cab, Elias saw the sedan growing smaller in the mirror, Preston beside it with both hands at his sides, Camilla sitting rigid in the back as if elegance could still protect her from being seen.
Caleb drove without speaking for several miles.
Then Elias said, “I should have called you sooner.”
Caleb kept his eyes on the highway. “I should have answered the last time.”
Neither apology fixed eleven years. But the road ahead was dark, and they were moving in the same direction at last.
Sometimes that was the first mercy a family earned.