I went to bed and tossed all night.
The next morning, I dragged myself through the motions of getting Olivia and myself ready for the day.
“Everything all right, querido?” Elena asked when I dropped Livvie off.
“Fine,” I said. I kissed my daughter. “Be good. I love you.”
“Wuv, Daddy,” Olivia said. From Elena’s arms she pressed her palm to her mouth and then flung her arm spastically to blow me a kiss.
My stung as I turned to go.
She’s the most important thing in the world. Focus on her.
The idea of having more happiness than that would have to wait.
I stepped outside the front of the Victorian and started down the stairs. A silver sedan was parked at the curb in front. Before I took one step, the door opened and a man looking to be in his early fifties stepped out. He straightened his pale blue, seersucker suit jacket. He looked like he just stepped off a yacht.
“Sawyer Haas?”
I froze. “Yes.”
“A moment.”
The man opened the back door of the sedan and an older couple, both looking to be in their mid-sixties stepped out. The man wore khaki pants and a white button-down shirt, the woman in a lavender dress. The June sunshine glinted off his gold Rolex and sparkled in diamond studs in her ears. They stood hand in hand on the sidewalk, nervous smiles on their faces.
“Hello,” the man said. “My name is Gerald Abbott and this is my wife, Alice. We’re Molly’s parents.”
The blood drained from my face.
Molly’s parents. Molly. She’s here. She’s back and now—
“This is our attorney, Mr. Holloway,” the woman, Alice said, indicating the man in the dark suit.
“Mr. Haas.” Mr. Holloway extended his hand to me.
They stood at the bottom of the three stairs, me at the top. I stared back without taking it.
“What do you want?”
Gerald and Alice exchanged grief-stricken looks, a shared pain that only they knew. They couldn’t speak, so their attorney spoke for them.
“Molly has unfortunately passed way,” Holloway said.
I went cold all over while breaking into a sweat at the same time, as my body tried to process the thousand conflicting emotions that shot through me at those words.
“She’s…dead?”
He nodded. “Yes. A car accident.”
Alice slipped her hand into Gerald’s and they exchanged a pained look that was brief but went miles deep.
“What happened?”
“Car accident.”
“When?” I choked out.
“Six months ago.”