about Aunt Claire?”
Daniel stopped moving.
He didn’t deny it.
Didn’t laugh.
Didn’t ask why Elliot would think such a thing.
He simply stood there.
I looked at my son.
“Why would you ask that?”
Elliot looked at the floor.
And that was when I realized I wasn’t the only person who had noticed something was wrong.
Daniel left anyway.
He walked out with the suitcase.
No goodbye to the younger boys.
No trip upstairs to Ben.
The front door slammed hard enough to shake the pictures on the wall.
