A Life Worth Living

Jared let out a bitter laugh, though it trembled on the edge of a sob, fragile and raw. "Do you know what kind of strength it takes to say no to someone like Brandon Glover? To refuse him again and again, knowing he could destroy you with a snap of his fingers?"

Jerica's hand stilled for a moment in his hair before resuming its soothing rhythm. Her eyes burned with tears she hadn't yet allowed to fall, her heart aching for the boy Jared had once been and for the mother who had suffered unspeakably. She could feel the weight of his words pressing down on her chest, sharp and suffocating, as though she was standing at the edge of a cliff, looking into a dark abyss of grief and injustice.