Laura
I didn’t know how long I’d been staring at the closet.
Long enough that the light coming through the curtains had changed.
Long enough that someone had brought food into the room and taken it away again untouched.
Long enough that I had stopped crying.
I almost preferred the crying.
At least crying felt like something.
This was nothing.
I lay on my side in Stephen’s T-shirt with the blanket pulled over me, staring at the closet door and thinking about a pink room across the hall that I couldn’t make myself walk into.
Emily’s room.
My daughter’s room.
Except my daughter would never see it.
A soft knock came from the bedroom door.
I didn’t answer.
People had been knocking all day.
Stephen.
Evelyn.
Someone bringing food.
Stephen again.
I knew the boys were out there t
