Chapter 11
REBUILDING
the changes in themselves and their relationship, facing the ultimate test of whether their love can endure.
The heavy steel door groaned shut behind her, the echoing clang vibrating in the sudden quiet that settled around Twan. Four years. It wasn’t just the sound of the lock snapping closed; it was the sound of their life hitting pause, or perhaps, the sound of a timer starting on a bomb they both knew was present. He stood in the sterile visiting room, the vinyl chair cold beneath him, watching the stiff, uniformed woman escorting Mandie away until she disappeared around a corner, leaving only the ghost of her perfume hanging in the recycled air. His son, Leo, who was ten when Mandie left and now stood almost as tall as him, clutched his hand, his small frame trembling slightly. Their other son, Daniel, seven years old then, now eleven, looked utterly lost, his eyes red-rimmed even though he hadn’t cried since the guard signaled the end of the visit.
“She’s gone, Daddy,” Daniel whispered, the words laced with a heavy finality that no child should ever know.
Twan knelt, pulling both children close, his own breath catching in his throat. “She’s just… away for a bit, baby. She’ll be back before you know it. We’ll be strong for her, okay? All three of us.” It was a lie smoother than any he’d told in years, a necessary bandage over a gaping wound.
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