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Sean hasn’t called me in years.

That doesn’t mean he hasn’t tried. I’ve changed numbers more than once and made sure no one knew where I was.

My boots hit the ground.

“What’s wrong?”

“Your mother had a heart attack.”

Everything inside me goes still.

“How bad?”

“She’s in surgery.”

I close my eyes.

The desert wind blows dust across the road. In the distance, the mountains rise against a cloudless sky, looking exactly as they did the last time I left.

“She isn’t getting any younger,” Sean says. “She needs you, Logan.”

Guilt cuts through the haze I’ve lived in for three years.

Mom lost Cathy too.

She lost her grandsons.

Then, while she was grieving, she lost me.

“I was already coming home,” I say. “I’m a couple of hours away.”

Sean is silent for a moment. “You’re coming back?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, figure it out before you get here. Your mom can’t survive watching you destroy yourself again.”

Anger rises quickly because it’s easier than shame.

“You don’t get to tell me what to do.”

“No, but I can tell you what she needs. She needs her son. Not a drunk who disappears the second loving someone gets hard.”

My hand tightens around the phone.

“I’ll be there in two hours.”

I disconnect before he can answer.

For a long moment, I remain beside the empty highway.

Three years ago, I left because I didn’t care whether I lived or died.

Now my mother is fighting for her life, and I’m terrified I waited too long to come home.

I start the motorcycle and pull back onto the road.

I don’t know what waits for me in Iron Ridge.