The lack of a father figure had been their wound—but it became their forge. Each of them had learned to fight harder, reach higher, care deeper. Where Justin had collapsed, they had risen. Not in spite of his absence, but because of it. They were strong because they had to be.
And Justin, once the center of his own world, was now nothing more than a shadow at its edge. The man who left. The man who returned too late. And as the world spun forward, he remained still—left behind, with only his regret to keep him company.