He left his daughter behind for a few more hours, so that he could take her away forever.

It was the most counterintuitive act of love he ever performed, and the most important, and he has never forgotten what it cost him to smile at his wife and pull that door closed behind him with his child still inside.

Sometimes protecting someone looks, for an agonizing moment, exactly like leaving them.

He walked away.

And then he came back for her, the way he always would.

Chapter 8 — Two Blocks Away