She watched the three dots appear, then disappear. Appear. Disappear. He was typing, erasing, typing—trying to find the right string of words to keep her on the hook.
The snow thickened. The road narrowed. The GPS fell silent, the screen showing a blank gray void where the map should be. For a terrifying, liberating second, Lena was nowhere. No route. No destination. No man-shaped hole to drive around.
She laughed, a dry, cracked sound. It was the most honest conversation she’d had all year. The GPS wasn’t mocking her; it was just stating facts. She was always searching for him. Always recalculating her life around his exits.
Your Daddy Ditched Me Again, she thought. And for the first time, the sentence didn't end with a question mark. It ended with a period.
She looked up. There was no diner, no motel, no truck stop. Just a wide pull-off overlooking a frozen river, the moonlight turning the snow into a field of diamonds. The road ended here.
The GPS voice was unnervingly cheerful. "Recalculating. Searching for- Your Daddy Ditched Me Again in- ...four hundred feet, turn left."
Eli stirred. “Daddy here?”
When Eli woke up, she’d tell him they were going on a new adventure. Just the two of them.
The snow kept falling. The road behind her disappeared. And for once, Lena didn't look back.
Her phone buzzed. Not a call. A text.