My Daughter Said “we Need A Break” Two Days Before Christmas

she laughed so hard at the stuffed rabbit I got her that milk came out her nose.

I hadn’t heard her laugh like that in months.

I left one note on Renee’s kitchen counter. Folded once. Six words.

I locked the front door behind me. Gerald changed the code on the keypad that afternoon.

Three days later – not fourteen, not twenty-one, three – headlights swept continue reading …