Chapter 222: The Price of Truth

LUMINA The pain in my youngest son's voice nearly brought me to my knees. How could I explain to a five--year--old that love didn't always mean staying? That sometimes people made choices that hurt the people they cared about because they were hurting too much to see any other option? "Riley does love you, sweetheart," I said, moving to kneel beside the couch where he sat between his grandparents. "But he's very confused and scared right now. He found out some things that made him feel like he couldn't trust us anymore."   "Because you killed his mama," Ollie said with the brutal honesty that only children possessed. "The mama who hurt him but who he still loved."   Samuel winced at his grandson's words, but he didn't try to deny them. We'd all made the decision to eliminate Sophia, and we'd all known there would be consequences. We just hadn't anticipated how severe those consequences would be.   "Yes," I admitted, because lying to Ollie would only make things worse. "Because we kille