Losing his job had been the blow that ruined him. He’d spun completely out of control after that, disappearing for days on end and resurfacing looking and smelling like a skid-row bum. Angela had suspected he’d moved on to heroin, which was cheaper and easier to get than Oxy.

Two days before they left for Camp David, she’d given him an ultimatum—her or the drugs. He’d fallen on his knees, sobbing as he wrapped his arms around her and promised to get clean, saying he couldn’t lose her or their kids, that he’d die without them. He’d begged her to give him one more chance and promised he would put his life—and hers—back together starting right after the weekend with her family. He’d wanted a couple more days with her and the kids before he left again for rehab.

He'd been due to fly to a clinic in Minnesota right after the weekend at Camp David.

Angela wanted to know when he’d acquired the drugs that had probably killed him. Was it before he begged her for one more chance, or after? She’d like to know that, not that it mattered much now.

If there was one silver lining to the shocking events of the last few days, it was that her sisters now knew what she’d been going through. Keeping it from them had been almost as difficult as the war they’d been waging with his addiction. Spencer had been adamant that no one know. He didn’t want his struggles to reflect negatively on the brother- and sister-in-law he loved, admired and respected. It had been hell for Angela to keep it from Tracy and Sam. At times, she’d felt like they had to know, because how could she possibly hide that level of torment from the two people who knew her as well as Spencer did?

The door to her room opened and then closed.

Jack tiptoed toward her bedside, looking to see if she was awake.

Angela held out her arms to him, and he climbed up on the bed with her. “How’s my sweet boy?”

“I’m so sad.”

“I know, baby. So am I.”

“How can Daddy just be gone and never coming back?”

“I don’t know. I wish I had answers that would explain it for you. The one thing you should know forever and ever is how much Daddy loved you. He loved Ella, too, but you were his special buddy.”

“I miss him so much,” Jack said on a soft sob.

“Me, too.”

While Angela held her sobbing child, she seethed with rage directed at Spencer, the doctors who’d prescribed addictive pain medicine in the first place—and then cut him off from it—and the person who’d sold him the fatal dose.

Sam was determined to track down the dealer, and Angela hoped her sister found them. That wouldn’t bring Spencer back or solve the myriad other problems his death left her with, but if they were caught, at least they wouldn’t be able to devastate another family like hers had been.