Framed By Love, Unleashed By Vengeance

Carden

tained face-they were all vivid, unwelcome invaders in my mind. Each memory was a spark, igniting the infer

nize, but I started anyway, straightening the few books, folding my limited clothes. I pushed aside a stack

d, the bottom gave way. The contents spilled onto the threadbare blanket, scattering across the mattress. Among

y photo. Edgar, Kody, and me. We were smiling, standing in front of a Christm

ferocity that bordered on madness. He wasn't mine by blo

laiming he couldn't bear the thought of more pain. But I had seen something else in him, a longi

. He was frail, malnourished, with a congenital heart defect that would require countless surge

with a fierce, protective love. I named him Kody, a name that meant 'helpful' and

became an expert in pediatric cardiology by necessity. Edgar, eventually, came around, but it was always my battle. My sacrifice. And Kody, in tu

k into her orbit with practiced ease. She was everything I wasn't-flashy, am

ered promises, slowly poisoned his mind. He started calling me "controlling," "overprotective." He grew resentful of the endless doctor'

things." His office door was always locked now, his phone glued to his hand. Kody stopped telling me about his day, instead spending hours with Celen

finger, a thin line of red blooming against my skin, staining the smiling faces in the photo. It was a physi

dles on his cake, his eyes bright with hope. "I wish," he'

n sound that caught in my thro

across the image. I crumpled it in my hand, then tossed it into the small wast

buzzed. A text messa

h Birthday Celebration. This

like a trap, another cruel twist of the knife. But a part of me, a small, foolish part, wondered if this w