For a long moment, father and son simply looked at each other across the quiet room, the red dress between them, the little silver locket glinting on the table.

Caleb’s eyes moved from the gown, to the locket, to the face of the son he had abandoned two weeks ago over both.

He swallowed hard, and when he finally spoke, his voice cracked and broke into a ragged whisper.

“I was a coward, Julian,” he choked out, the tears spilling freely down his cheeks now.

“I was so afraid of the pain of losing her.

So afraid of it that I couldn’t look at anything that reminded me she’d been real.