Carter took a step forward, hand raised, fingers trembling. And when he turned toward us, gone was the bravado, gone was the man I’d come to know. In his place stood a lost boy, eyes wide and wet, lip trembling. “Mom,” he croaked as a tear spilled down his cheek, chest hitching. And ah, god, there was so much blue pouring off him, I thought it would drown us all. “He … left. Mom? Why—why did he go? Why did he leave? I didn’t know. I didn’t know.”
