“Every time you said it,” he said into his hands, “I wanted to die.”
“But you didn’t tell me.”
“No. I didn’t tell you.”
My dad shifted in the doorway. He hadn’t said a word through any of this. Now he spoke.
“Why’d you come here today, son?”
Ben looked up at him. He wiped his face with the back of his hand.
“After the hospital, I went home, and I sat in the dark for two days,” Ben said. “I didn’t eat. I didn’t sleep. Claire’s photo came. The one of Evie’s hand.” His voice wavered. “I must have looked at it a thousand times. And then yesterday, after Claire came for her things, after I watched her through the window and didn’t open the door, Mom came over. And she found me. And I said, I need to know. I need to know for sure.”
