“Only Tuesday,” he said with a grimace. He had gotten home late from the office and eaten dinner with us still in his suit and tie. He had been promoted from a manager to a sales director a few months prior, and while at first I was thrilled at the prospect of more financial breathing room, it also meant longer hours at the office. By the time he came home at night and dinner was finished, both of us were usually so exhausted we fell asleep on the couch right after the kids’ bedtime.

“Thanks for making the tacos tonight,” he said.

“I’m glad you liked them. One day, I shall make something everyone in this house eats.” The kids had picked at their tortillas and essentially only eaten the shredded cheese, dipping each sliver into the mountain of sour cream they had each loaded onto their plate.

“We can only dream,” Mark said. His phone buzzed from across the room, and he glanced at it but remained in his seat. It buzzed again, and I could see the messages stacking on top of one another on the screen. But instead of getting up and replying, he looked at me. “Why don’t we watch a movie tonight? Your choice.”

I lifted my eyebrows in surprise. “My choice? Really?”

He smiled. “Sure. Just not anything airing on Bravo.”

I rolled my eyes. “Well, that eliminates about ninety-nine-point-nine percent of everything I watch. It really puts your own life into perspective when you’re watching a grown woman flip a table and call someone a ‘prostitution whore.’ ” I lifted my glass in salute to the mindless television that had seen me through many long nights as I nursed our kids. “True-crime documentary, then?”

“Now you’re speaking my language.” He stood up and grabbed our plates. “Let me slip into something more comfortable”—he wiggled his eyebrows at me—“and then let’s do it.”

“I hope by ‘do it,’ you mean watch the documentary.” I stood up and went into the family room, settled down on the couch with a blanket, and queued up the television.

I scrolled through a few crime documentaries until I stopped on one titled She Never Came Home, about a mom who disappeared during a camping trip to Yosemite with her husband and children. The husband claimed she had just vanished, like a ghost in the night.