I returned home from deployment three weeks ahead of schedule to surprise my husband and our four-year-old daughter

Then I heard a small voice behind me.

“Mama?”

It was Lily.

One of the paramedics had brought her back inside briefly so she could retrieve her stuffed rabbit from the living room.

She stood in the doorway with a blanket draped around her little shoulders.

Her eyes were fixed on the black document case.

“Are you going away again?”

I hurried across the room and knelt in front of her.

“No, sweetheart.”

She searched my face.

“Daddy said you didn’t want me anymore.”

My heart seemed to stop beating.

“What?”

“He said you liked being with the Army better than being my mama.”

For a moment, I could barely draw a breath.

Then Lily whispered something even more devastating.

“Grandma said I had to learn to call her Mommy when we went to the new house.”

I wrapped both arms tightly around my daughter.

She weighed so little.