Page 21 of Wolf Dad Energy

My security system is one of the few luxuries I allowed myself after buying the cottage.

Cameras. Motion sensors. Nothing excessive. Just enough to make me feel safe.

I walk into my office and open the monitoring software. The front porch camera loads. The footage from earlier appears. Rain. Wind. My front steps. Then Morrow. I pause.

I didn't expect to see him. Not because I don't believe him. Because seeing it makes this real. I scrub backward. The moment before he appears. The screen glitches.

I stop. The footage freezes. Then skips. I try again. Same thing.

The recording jumps from an empty porch to Morrow standing there. No approach. No walking up. No arrival. Just there. I check the other cameras.

Driveway. Side yard. Back porch. Every single one has the same issue. Missing footage.

Corrupted files.

No explanation arrives. No logical answer. And I hate that. Logic has always been my shelter. When my life became impossible, I built one around facts. Evidence. Patterns. Truth.

Hollow Truths exist because I believe almost everything can be understood if people are willing to look closely enough. But right now…

I am looking closely. And I am not understanding anything. The lights flicker. Morrow appears in my doorway.

"Is something wrong?"

I close the laptop.

"No."

He gives me a very familiar look. A look that says he knows when someone is lying.

"You're bad at that."

I almost laugh.

"At what?"

"Pretending you're not worried."

The room goes quiet. Because he is right. And because I have spent years telling millions of strangers that honesty matters. Yet here I am. Lying to a boy who might be my son.

"I need to ask you something."

He nods.

"Your adoptive parents."

His expression changes.

"What about them?"

"Did they ever mention where you came from?"

The question feels impossible as soon as it leaves my mouth. His face falls.

"I can’t remember."

"Think."

"I am."