He sat with his wife’s photo, waiting for a son who had already boarded without him

berated for almost a decade.

— You need to come back, — he said finally.

The words weren’t a request; they were a plea wrapped in a command.

— No.

The simplicity of it stunned him.

— You don’t want to hear the terms? — he asked, voice cracking on the last word.

— There are no terms you could offer that would make returning worth it.

He ran a hand through continue reading …