After My Husband Left on a Business Trip, My Child Said We Shouldn’t Go Home. I Listened

in the hallway—other police, presumably, other people whose job was to manage the fallout of lives exploding without warning.

I turned to Lucas. “Grab your backpack, sweetie. We’re going on a trip.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know yet. Somewhere safe.”

“Is Dad coming?”

The question I’d been avoiding. I knelt down so we were eye to eye. “Dad did some things that continue reading …