When Love Comes Late by PASSION

Her heart sank like a stone.

She crumpled to the floor, hugging her knees, tears pouring out.

After a bit, she mustered the strength to dial her older brother, Karson Padilla.

“Karson, something’s up with Mom…”

Her voice raspy, she struggled to get the words out, but all she got back was a cacophony of noise.

Finally, Karson’s impatient voice pierced through, booming, “Who’s this? I can’t talk now, busy!”

Devyn caught wind of the chatter on his end, betting odds being tossed around.

Her eyes widened, frustration boiling over.

“Karson! How… how could you gamble again?”

She’d hoped he’d learned his lesson after all those tough times.

But she never imagined that with their mom still fighting in the ICU, Karson would hit the tables again.

was Devyn, burst out, “Chill,

time’s going to be different; we’ll

like a junkie chasing a

air, leaving Devyn’s heart in freefall, lost

on the edge

it? When will you quit relying on gambling to fix things? Haven’t you learned from past mistakes? Do you have to push

the

at her phone in disbelief, tears

it so tight,

while, her emotions settled

at Maureen, pale in

on, so she had

a USB flash drive

bunch of data from Stella’s computer earlier, including some of her

to waste

designs, she could tackle all her problems

Nikolai forwarded Devyn’s latest design to

studying it, Matthew couldn’t help but