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“Exactly.” I saluted them and got into the cruiser. “Everything okay?”

“Oh, yeah!” Maddy finished a text and looked at me. Her smile felt forced. “It’s just… Annabelle gets cranky at naptime sometimes.”

“Why’s that?”

Her face fell as she swallowed hard and whispered, “She’s afraid if she falls asleep, when she wakes up, I’ll be gone.”

“I know the feeling,” I admitted without thinking, then heard her sharp intake of breath.

Shit.

I was losing at this closure thing. Especially when I let my guard down, and my anger forgotten. When I did that, all I had left was my honesty.

And my truth wasn’t pretty; it was ugly.

It was a life lived without her by my side.