CHAPTER 143

The silence in the car was almost suffocating, each of us wrapped up in our own thoughts.

I glanced at Uncle George as he drove, his hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles had turned white against the worn leather.

It had been years since I’d last seen him, and though the circumstances were far from ideal, the wear of time was etched deeply on his face. He looked older, more burdened by the weight of life’s unexpected blows.

Aunt Lou sat beside him, trying and failing to hide her tears. She dabbed at her eyes with a crumpled tissue, thinking no one noticed. But I did. I saw everything—the silent sorrow in the set of her shoulders, the tremor in her hands.

I wanted to say something, anything, to ease the tension, but the words just wouldn’t come. Instead, I stared out the window, watching the world blur past, my own emotions a tangled mess that I couldn’t begin to unravel.

The car hummed quietly, the sound only amplifying the tension.

When we finally arrived a