Denise touched my arm. “You’re her mother, Dani.”
By noon, Mark came home alone.
The front door slammed so hard a picture frame fell from the hallway table.
I dropped the laundry basket.
Mark stood there soaked, gray-faced, his hands shaking so badly his keys hit the floor.
Family Law
“What happened?”
His mouth opened, but nothing came out.
“Mark.”
“What do you mean, gone?”
“She slipped,” he gasped. “By the rocks. I turned around to untangle the line, and she was gone.”
I grabbed his shirt. “Mark, where is she?”
“I looked everywhere…”
Parenting
“Where is my daughter?!”
My husband fell to his knees. “The current took her.”
Police searched until midnight. Divers went in, dogs worked the banks, and volunteers called Sophie’s name.
A detective came to us near the water.
“The current is strong there,” he said gently.
“But you haven’t found her,” I said.
“Then you don’t know.”
Herbs & Spices
Mark stared at the water.
“It’s my fault,” he whispered. “I turned my back.”
For weeks, we searched.
Denise made calls when I couldn’t speak and sat beside me while I circled places on a map.
“Dani,” she said one night. “You need to sleep.”
“I’ll sleep when they find my baby.”
She didn’t answer.
Pregnancy & Maternity
Eventually, police called it an accident: wet rocks, fast water.
I refused to accept it.
Mark accepted it too quickly.
He sold the boat, avoided the lake, and packed away Sophie’s fishing vest, but kept his red tackle box.
Then he moved it into our bedroom closet.
One night, I found him sitting on the closet floor with the box in his lap.
“Mark?”
Anatomy
He winced.
“I just need it close, Danielle.”
“It’s dirty. Let me wipe it down.”
His voice snapped so hard I stepped back.
“It still smells like her sunscreen, Dani.”
Then he cried. I wanted to be angry. Instead, I felt sorry for him.
I called the detective monthly and kept a binder with every update, map, and volunteer’s name.
Dictionaries & Encyclopedias
Mark hated that binder.
“You’re torturing yourself,” he said one night.
“She’s gone.”
I looked up slowly. “Don’t say that.”
“You have to let her rest.”
“She isn’t resting until I know where she is.”
He looked away.
