Not a crime scene.
Not a prison.
Something sadder.
Daniel’s grief had a locked room.
I walked to the TV cabinet. The top DVD said Zoo trip. Another said Grace birthday. There was a notebook on the table, open to a page. I didn’t mean to read it, but I caught one line.
Then I heard the front door open upstairs.
I wish you were here.
I shut it at once.
Then I heard the front door open upstairs.
Daniel was home early.
His voice carried down the hall. “Girls?”
Grace lit up. “Daddy! I showed her Mommy!”
His tone made Grace flinch.
The footsteps stopped.
Then they came fast.
Daniel appeared at the basement door and went white when he saw it open.
For one awful second, nobody spoke. Daniel just stared at us for a second.
“What did you do?”
His tone made Grace flinch.
His face changed. The anger fell right out of it.
I stepped in front of the girls. “Do not speak to me like that.”
He pressed both hands to his head. “Why is this open?”
“Because your daughter told me her mother lives down here.”
His face changed. The anger fell right out of it.
Grace’s voice shook. “Did I do bad?”
He looked at her like his heart had split open. “No. No, baby.”
“I was going to tell you.”
I crouched down. “Why don’t you two go watch cartoons? I’ll bring soup.”
They hesitated, then went upstairs.
I turned back to him. “Talk.”
He looked around the basement like he hated that I was seeing it. “I was going to tell you.”
“When?”
Silence.
That took some of the heat out of me.
I laughed once. “Exactly.”
He came down the stairs slowly. “It’s not what you think.”
“I don’t even know what to think.”
His voice cracked. “It’s all I had left.”
That took some of the heat out of me.
Not all of it, but enough.
I said nothing.
He sat on the bottom step and stared at the floor. “After she died, everyone kept telling me to be strong. So I was. I worked. I packed lunches. I got through each day. People said I was amazing.” He laughed bitterly. “I just kept going for the girls, but I was numb.”
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