As she moved to the phone, I sat beside Eli, holding him close, feeling the tremors that still coursed through his small body. His eyes, wide and fearful, met mine, searching for answers I wasn’t sure I could provide.

“Why, Mom?” he asked, voice trembling. “Why did Dad do this?”

The question hung heavily in the air, echoing the one that circled relentlessly in my mind. Why indeed? Jared had been a man who laughed easily, a loving father—or so I had believed. To think that this person, the one I had trusted implicitly, was capable of such malice, ripped at the very fabric of my reality.