Chapter 5 - THE VOID
Days turned into weeks. The house in Overland Park became a tomb. Every time I walked through the door, the silence felt heavier, pressing down on my chest. I stopped eating. I stopped sleeping. I spent my nights in the nursery, sitting on the bare floor, staring at the patch of wall where the "You Are Cherished" print used to be.
I hired my own investigator, but the trail was cold. Elise had effectively vanished. She had closed her bank accounts, changed her number, and moved her social media presence into the dark.
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I became a man possessed by regret. I looked at the receipts of the life I had destroyed and realized that everything I had bought for Vanessa—every handbag, every bottle of perfume—was just trash. It had no value. It couldn't cry when it was hungry. It couldn't hold my finger with a tiny hand.
I began volunteering at the children’s hospital, hoping that being around babies would somehow lead me to a shred of understanding, or perhaps, a miracle. I was a broken man, begging the universe for a chance to apologize, even if the apology was never heard.
