Waiting Without End

Synopsis

The rain had been falling all afternoon on my daughter's fifth birthday, soft and steady. I stood outside the kindergarten gates with my umbrella, waiting for her to run out, when my phone buzzed in my hand. It was a photo posted by Clara Evans, Andrew Bennett's assistant. It showed a children's amusement park, a carousel mid-turn. Andrew was there, crouching beside it, both hands holding onto a little boy in a blue hoodie, looking at the boy gently. The caption was simple. [My fifth birthday. Daddy rode the carousel with me and promised he'd protect me forever.] My thumb paused against the screen. Rain slipped off the edge of my umbrella and tapped softly against the ground. Thirty minutes earlier, Andrew had texted to say something had come up with the Willow City project, that he was out of town and wouldn't make it back tonight. And somehow, he hadn't remembered that today was Chloe's fifth birthday.