He was thrashing in his sheets, eyes wide open but completely unseeing. “Wake up, Elsie! Wake up, please!” he shrieked, clawing at his own face.
A small voice broke the silence: “Dad… my little sister won’t wake up. We’re so hungry.” Without a second thought, he grabbed them and rushed to the hospital. But what he learned there about their mother would change everything… 11
Chapter 6: Learning a New Shape of Family
I dropped the lamp and pinned Micah’s arms to his sides, wrapping him in a bear hug until the night terror broke and he collapsed against me, sobbing uncontrollably. I rocked him on the floor until the sun came up, realizing with absolute clarity that my hatred for Delaney wasn’t going to heal him. My vengeance couldn’t act as a soothing balm for my children’s trauma.
We started intensive therapy. I stepped back from my firm, taking a massive pay cut to work reduced hours. I learned that fatherhood wasn’t about being the hero who swoops in during a crisis; it was the grueling, invisible, holy work of consistency. It was folding laundry at midnight. It was answering the same fearful question—”Are you leaving today?”—twenty times a morning without losing my patience.
