Age 14
Riley was on edge, and the rational part of her brain told her to send Evan away for the day. He was supposed to be shadowing her, but she wasn’t sure she was in the right frame of mind to have him trailing behind her.
They had been training together in the mornings for over a week, and Evan was making progress, albeit slowly. He was exceptionally stubborn. He hated being told what to do, and he refused to accept that he might be wrong. Riley had spent more time than she liked knocking him flat on his back because he simply wouldn’t listen.
Today, she had agreed to let him shadow her at work, something he had been pestering her about all week. But then she woke up to that email, and her heart had nearly leapt out of her chest. She had run straight to Kent.
“An email from who?” h
