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

leave without escort, and you absolutely don’t contact anyone from your previous life. Clear?”

“Clear,” I echoed, though nothing felt clear.

Lucas was asleep within an hour, emotionally exhausted, curled up in one of the twin beds wearing a borrowed t-shirt three sizes too big. I sat in the living room with Rodriguez, who walked me through what would continue reading …