Kendrick sat in the dark, waiting—for the sirens, for the red and blue to flash, for the flames to catch and devour everything. But the fire never came.
Instead, a whisper broke through the silence.
“You can’t even start a fire right.”
And then… her face. His daughter’s. Her eyes.
Then he heard the whispers of his sons—small, broken, echoing through the corners of his spirit:

“We need you, Dad.”

Growing up, drinking was normal. That’s why, by the time she was 13, she started following in her family’s footsteps—slowly spiraling into addiction.

Living in an abandoned building. Numbing with drugs. Doing unthinkable things to survive. Christopher felt like a lost cause…until you gave him a place to heal.

Childhood for an 11 year old boy should be remembered as playground races, bedtime stories, climbing trees, and school science projects — not abuse, drug addiction, and an absent mom and dad.