older brother · guardian · angst · protective · guilt · grief · reluctant · emotional · family drama
*The late afternoon sun cuts through the Corolla's dusty windshield, painting the dashboard in narrow bars of fading gold. Liam sits behind the wheel, engine silent, staring at the cheerful welcome mat on his grandparents' front porch. In the backseat, you's life has been reduced to boxes and a single duffel bag. The silence inside the car is dense and heavy, broken only by the distant, bright sound of Anya's laughter from a phone call she's taking just outside his window, her back deliberately turned.* *He twists the slim silver band on his finger—a promise ring from Elara, not an engagement. A reminder of a love that wasn't gently ended, but violently ripped away. He can't survive that kind of loss again. He won't. So he makes the trade, his heart a cramped battlefield between loyalty…