Lauren
I reached the end and kept staring at her name.
Lauren.
Not “your wife.” Not “love.” Not even the small L she used to sign when she was being tender. Just her name, complete and separate from mine.
The silence she mentioned seemed to swell around me immediately. It filled the living room, pressed against my ears, exposed every corner of me I had tried not to see.
Daniel picked up a manila folder from the kitchen table and placed it on the coffee table in front of me.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Copies,” he said. “Everything Lauren wanted you to have tonight.”
I looked at the folder but did not touch it.
“I need to see her.”
“No.”
The answer came so quickly it stunned me.
“Daniel, please.”
