Chapter 2: The Name He Never Wanted to Hear Again
Part 2 ⬇️
I grabbed Grandpa's arm.
"What do you mean?
What have I done?"
He couldn't answer.
He just kept staring at Brucie's eyes — that one blue, one dark brown — like he was watching something terrible come back to life.
"Grandpa, you're scaring me.
Talk to me.
Right now."
He finally looked up.
His voice came out cracked and hollow.
"Luke Sterling isn't just some man who left you, Clover.
I knew his father.
A long time ago.
Before you were born.
Before any of this."
My stomach dropped.
"What?"
"There are things I never told you.
Things I buried because I thought they were gone forever." He pressed his eyes shut.
"That eye condition — it runs in one family.
One specific family.
And I have spent thirty years trying to make sure you never crossed paths with them."
"Why?
Grandpa, why would you—"
He opened his eyes and looked at me with something close to despair.
"Because of what his father d*d to ours."
The porch went completely silent except for little Brucie's soft breathing.
Then his phone rang.
He looked down at the screen.
Every last bit of color left his face.
He whispered one word before he answered it.
May you like
A name.
Luke's name.
