than an hour, these siblings—who had already lost their parents to a sudden tragedy three weeks prior—were scheduled to be separated. The system had decided that keeping five toddlers together was an administrative impossibility.
Carter had first seen their faces in an emergency placement notification, and the image had burned itself into his conscience. He couldn’t shake the visceral ache in his chest when he realized that their shared history was about to be erased. While most men his age were planning weekend getaways or focusing on career ladders, Carter
