Olivia's POV
The morning air felt suffocating, heavy in my lungs like it had no right to be breathed. I had barely slept. The night had passed in a dull haze of exhaustion, the kind that numbs the body but leaves the mind screaming. When the sound of muffled crying finally reached me, it didn't surprise me—it only confirmed the dread sitting in my chest.
I followed the sound to the boys' room.
They were huddled together on the bed, three small bodies shaking as one. Leon had his arms wrapped tightly around Leo, while Liam pressed his face into the pillow, his sobs broken and uneven. The sight nearly dropped me to my knees.
"Mommy," Liam cried the moment he saw me. "Daddy is dying."
The words hit like a blade.
Through their tears and hiccupping breaths, they told me everything. They had seen him. Father Lennox. They said he looked like a ghost. Pale. Thin. Different. They said he looked like he was dying.
