Then Diane laughed.
“Oops,” she said mockingly. “At least you finally took a shower.”
Brendan laughed with her.
Jessica giggled behind her hand.
And that was the moment something inside me finally broke.
The Message That Changed Everything
Instead of screaming…
Instead of crying…
I reached calmly into my bag.
Pulled out my phone.
And sent a single message.
“Initiate Protocol 7.”
That was it.
One sentence.
But it was the beginning of the end for all of them.
The Secret They Never Knew
There was something Brendan and his entire family had never discovered.
