POV: Milo
10:15 AM — Alone at the Table Again
Breakfast for one.
Again.
Dad didn't come down. Again.
Aaron's room still looked like a ghost town — bed half-made, guitar leaning in the corner like it was waiting to be picked up by someone who wasn't coming back.
And me?
I poured milk into cereal and pretended the silence didn't taste like regret.
10:45 AM — What No One Asked Me
Nobody ever asked how I felt when everything fell apart.
Aaron disappeared. Elena got kicked out. Dad shut down. The family imploded.
But me?
I was still here.
Still setting the table. Still pretending homework mattered. Still looking through the front window hoping somebody would walk back through the door like it was all a dream.
Spoiler: it wasn't.
11:10 AM — Flashback: The Night I Found the Letter
Elena was crying in her room.
Aaron's door was open. His closet was empty.
I found the note he left on his desk, folded into the shape of a crane.
He always did that when he was nervous.
