Marin had never spoken much of her mother or father—or her stepfather, for that matter—out of shame or something else, I never knew why. They were ghosts in the shadows, nonexistent for all we knew. Her father was a military hero, she had once told me. I never questioned that no family on her side showed up to Marin and Cody’s wedding; I never even saw a photo of Bennett. If I had, would I have connected him to that stranger with the limp on the fateful night of the fender-bender when Vera had come into our lives?

“How will they trace him, Felicity?” Oliver persisted. “Bennett has no listed phone number, isn’t at his last known address. The PI already investigated him for us and came up with bupkes. We can figure it out without the cops. Eventually Vera will contact us.”

“We’ve waited six months! I’m done waiting, Ollie. My freedom isn’t worth losing my daughter. My time is up.”

“You think the cops will be able to find Bennett when Marin couldn’t?” Oliver’s voice dropped to a soft beg. “Please don’t do this. Twenty years, Felicity. That’s how long you’d be in jail. You’d miss everything.”

“I’m already missing everything. I have no other choice.”

I lifted his legs off of my lap, stood, and grabbed my keys. I couldn’t sleep on this or I’d change my mind. I needed to do it while I still had the courage. I headed outside, walked to the car, tears rolling down my face. Oliver scrambled to step into his loafers while chasing me to the driveway, knowing he was broken and beaten. Vera and I shared the same stubborn streak.

I paused at the car door, kissed Oliver long and deep and lovingly, as if it was the last kiss we’d share for the next two decades. Our lips were full of a lifetime’s worth of love and memories and baby births and house hunting and family vacations and job changes and business startups and preschool graduations. Our whole life together was in that single kiss.

“I can’t see the kids like this. I’ll never be able to follow through if I have to say goodbye to them. Just tell them I love them, and Mommy will see them soon.”

He grabbed my hand, pulled me away from the vehicle. “Felicity, you don’t have to do this. I promised you I’d protect you. Let me do this for you.”

I shook my head. “No, this is on me. It started with me, it ends with me.”

“That’s not how marriage works, Felicity. We both have been in this together since the beginning. I’m not asking. I’m telling you—I’m taking this from you. I’ll lie to the police and say whatever I have to in order to protect you.”