Soft padding on every wall. Rounded corners on every surface. No outdoor walks without two adults present. No risks. No chances.
At night, the triplets would crawl onto his lap, tracing his face with their fingers, memorizing him in ways no child should have to. And every time they did, something inside Ethan broke.
Because deep down, he felt it.
That awful, nagging thought.
What if someone was wrong?
On the corner of Maple and Fifth, beneath a flickering streetlight and a pile of cardboard, sat a woman the city had stopped seeing.
Her coat was too thin. Her gray hat pulled low. Her hair woven into tired braids streaked with silver. Most people crossed the street to avoid her.
Her name was Dr. Lillian Moore.
Once, hospitals had begged her to operate on newborns other surgeons were too afraid to touch. She’d saved hundreds of children’s eyesight.
Until one night took everything.
A drunk driver. A crushed car. A husband and a six-year-old daughter gone in seconds.
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