Chapter 51 Confirm

• By the time Bryan pulled up to Pineridge Kindergarten, the campus was a ghost town. The other children had long since been swept away by their parents, leaving behind nothing but empty swings swaying in the evening breeze and the fading golden light of dusk.
• His eyes immediately found her.
• Astra was huddled in the far corner of the playground, a solitary, slump-shouldered figure against the fence. Her head hung low, her small fingers gripping her backpack straps so tightly her knuckles had turned white. The vibrant, radiant child who had smiled so brightly that morning had vanished, replaced by a hollow-eyed shell.