Content Notes are available for Dawn.

“Dad?” Mani asks. “If… if you and Pa break up… can I still stay with you, sometimes?”

“Why would you ask that, Mani? That is not going to happen,” I reply.

“But if it does…”

I look at him. He is worried. He has been on edge for weeks. Is this why?

“Is that what is happening?”

It is the wrong thing to say. He wanted to be comforted, not have his fears confirmed.

When I go to bed, I reach for Scott.

And he pulls away from me.

Again.

Dawn