Chapter 23 Mother's Grave

• The unmarked earth held its secrets beneath a canopy of weeping willows. Morning mist clung to the tall grass, creating a veil between the living and the buried. Bobby's boots crushed dew-laden stems with each careful step, following Aurelius deeper into the secluded grove at the edge of Onyx Moon territory.
• No headstone marked the spot. Only a slight depression in the soil, forgotten and undisturbed by time.
• Aurelius stopped beside a cluster of white birch trees, their bark peeling like old wounds. His shoulders sagged with the weight of twenty-two years of silence.