"Emma's failing," Tyler said, his voice barely above a whisper. "She can't control her phasing. She's terrified she'll get kicked out of Whitmore, and if she does, there's nowhere else that'll take her. Our parents..." He swallowed hard. "They can't handle a kid like her. They tried. They just can't."
Samantha felt something twist in her chest—recognition, empathy, the particular pain of watching a child slip through systems that should catch them.
"So you thought sabotaging Oliver would help?" Marcus asked, and there was no judgment in his tone, just genuine curiosity.
"I thought if Oliver wasn't so stable, maybe the teachers would focus on broader techniques instead of just using him as the example everyone else fails to match." Tyler's laugh was bitter. "Stupid, right? I just made everything worse."
"You made a choice," Callum said quietly. "A bad one. But one that came from caring about your sister."
