The man stood at the pharmacy counter, his voice tight with worry. He’d just asked about his prescription—medication he needed, not wanted—and the pharmacist had given him the number: one hundred seventy […]
By the time he was eleven, the boy had already been abandoned twice. His birth family left when he was two—too young to understand but old enough to feel the absence. Years […]
Alan was nine years old when he saw Jaime for the first time. Fourth grade. The kind of age when most boys think girls are annoying and love is something only adults […]
It happened in seconds. One moment, Zyvion was at the edge of the pool with his friends, the next he was slipping into the deep end. He couldn’t swim. His body sank […]
The courtroom in Texas was filled with nearly eighty people, all gathered for a moment six years in the making. Lily stood at the center of it all, flanked by the Hill […]
For over twenty years, Mark Peterson held onto the same seats. Kansas City Chiefs season tickets—his ritual, his tradition, his way of marking time. Every fall brought the same thrill: game days […]
Lisa was somewhere over the middle of the country when her phone rang. The flight from Nebraska to Florida should have been routine—a chance to finally get home after days spent at […]
His name is Five. It’s the kind of nickname that sticks, the kind people remember. He waits tables at 42nd Street Oyster Bar in Raleigh while taking college classes, balancing the rhythm […]
At twenty-five, her life looked nothing like she’d imagined. She wasn’t supposed to be a mother. That wasn’t the plan. She had dreams of her own, a path she was still figuring […]
The rain came down in steady sheets that afternoon, the kind that turns sidewalks into mirrors and sends everyone rushing for cover. Most people barely glanced outside before deciding to wait it […]