Liam slammed the car door harder than he intended. The sharp sound echoed in his chest like an accusation he wasn’t ready to voice aloud: something inside him had been struck.

He turned the key and floored the accelerator. No second thoughts. Just motion. The conversation he’d overheard behind the half-open door still hammered somewhere between rage and contempt.

As the tires ate up the asphalt, his locked jaw spoke louder than any coherent thought.

Less than twenty minutes later, he pulled int