It was a normal Tuesday\u2014until my phone rang. I almost ignored it, then saw the caller ID: HOME. I picked up, expecting my wife, Laurel. Instead, I heard my daughter Alice\u2019s shaky voice.
\n\u201cDaddy? Mommy left.\u201d<\/p>\n
My stomach dropped. \u201cWhat do you mean, sweetheart?\u201d
\n\u201cShe took her suitcase. She hugged me and said, \u2018Wait for Daddy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
I bolted out of my office, drove home like a madman, and ran inside. Silence. No sign of Laurel. Alice was curled up on the couch, sleeping. When she woke up, her first question was, \u201cDaddy, where\u2019s Mommy?\u201d<\/p>\n
I had no answer. My eyes landed on a white envelope on the counter. My hands shook as I tore it open.
\n\u201cKevin, I can\u2019t live like this anymore. By the time you read this, I\u2019ll be gone. But you\u2019ll find out what happened to me in a week.\u201d
\nI read it three times, trying to process it. She left us. No explanation. No warning.
\nFor a week, I lived in hell, waiting for whatever I was supposed to \u201cfind out.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then, on the seventh day, I turned on the TV.
\nA grainy local news broadcast filled the screen. The anchor introduced a special segment on people in crisis, showcasing stories from a nearby women\u2019s support center. I wouldn\u2019t have paid much attention if I hadn\u2019t heard the name \u201cLaurel Summers.\u201d My heart pounded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was a normal Tuesday\u2014until my phone rang. I almost ignored it, then saw the caller ID: HOME. I picked up, expecting my wife, Laurel. Instead, I heard my daughter Alice\u2019s shaky voice. \u201cDaddy? Mommy left.\u201d My stomach dropped. \u201cWhat do you mean, sweetheart?\u201d \u201cShe took her suitcase. She hugged me and said, \u2018Wait for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":638,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions\/638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}