“I hated myself.”
“Two years ago, I was cleaning an office building. Annie was waiting for me in the car. Your husband fell right by the entrance.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“Annie saw him first. She ran in and got me. I called 911, and we stayed with him until the ambulance came.”
“He asked us to tell his wife and his daughter that he loved them,” Annie added softly.
“The paramedics took over,” Marissa said. “I had another shift to get to. I never even learned his name.”
“He asked us to tell his wife and his daughter that he loved them.”
“It was dark, and I was so scared,” Annie said. “I only remember his hands. Last month, I saw his photo in Lily’s locker, and I knew. But we weren’t speaking anymore. I didn’t know how to tell her.”
“I didn’t know, Mom.” Lily was crying openly now. “We’d only been friends for a year. I never talked about how Dad died. I found out just a few days ago, when we had a fight and Annie finally told me.”
Daniel hadn’t died alone.
“I didn’t know, Mom.”
For two years, I’d lain awake picturing him on the pavement, scared and by himself. And all that time, a woman had been holding his hand, and a little girl had been sitting beside him.
