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

Because Derek was wrong.

If I had waited another three weeks to return from deployment, Lily might already have disappeared.

My house might have been sold.

Every remaining dollar in my accounts might have been taken.

And the forged paperwork might have been used to portray me as a mother who had voluntarily abandoned her own child.

But those were not even the most terrifying possibilities.

If I had not arrived home when I did, Lily might never have survived those three days she spent alone.

Derek wanted me to accept the idea that my early return was what had ruined his life.

But the truth was exactly the opposite.

Coming home early had saved Lily’s life.

I placed Derek’s letter inside a folder alongside the court documents.

I never sent him an answer.
Chapter 8: THE REAL MEANING OF HOME

On the anniversary of the day I came home from deployment, Lily and I went to the little park near our new house.