Mitch kneeled next to her with his arm around her and let her cry it out until she was finally ready to leave. The embarrassed police officer retreated to the squad car and pretended to be otherwise occupied.

An hour later, when they reached the interstate, they both breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of signs promising they were headed in the direction of Chesterland. They were looking forward to seeing the boys, and just being in their own home. They each craved some semblance of normalcy; Carolyn thought about taking a long, relaxing bath, and Mitch was anxious to put on his running shoes and run for several miles along his usual path.

Much to the amazement of Mitch, Carolyn, and everyone who was close to the Turner family, Christopher adjusted remarkably well. He moved in with Maryann and her new husband, and his grandparents saw him almost every day, so he certainly didn’t lack attention.

Mitch and Carolyn stopped over to visit with them from time to time, and were delighted to see that Christopher seemed happy and at peace with things. He talked with Mitch and Carolyn about his mom, dad, and brother, and about what had happened, but the tragedy didn’t seem to preoccupy him. His interests had more to do with the then and now. Carolyn and Mitch were somewhat relieved. While they were not convinced that Christopher was out of the woods, thus far he was doing remarkably well. Fortunately, Maryann wanted them to stay involved in Christopher’s life and they were determined and happy to do so. Things were not so sanguine in the Bianci household, however.

An outsider looking in would have assumed life had returned to normal, but that was far from true. Things were starting to come apart at the seams.

Mitch had returned to his role of running XAI. The biggest change in his work life was that he now had to travel a great deal, because his firm had successfully landed the Superfood Supermart account Mitch had been pitching the day he was abruptly forced to leave the office when his father-in-law called. He was required to go to Portland, Seattle, or San Francisco at least one week out of every month, because the first six stores were scheduled to open simultaneously in those markets the week before Thanksgiving—right around the one-year anniversary of what Mitch and Carolyn had euphemistically taken to calling “the events in Akron.”