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Someone knocked at the door

For a heart-stopping ht it was Jack, then she realized he wouldn't knock She let her breath out in a defeated sigh and slipped into her lawn nightgown

"Come in," she called out wearily

The door opened Savannah and Katie stood in the doorway, their faces pale with uncertainty

Tess tried to se it

Savannah twisted her fingers together "Is Daddy gone again?"

Sadness wrenched through Tess The heart she thought she'd lost twisted hard The girls?her girls?were trying so hard to be brave, not to cry The realization reminded Tess that they were a family now A family None of them had to suffer alone; they had one another

"Co the bed next to her

They were beside her in a second, claside her mother and tilted her small face up "Will he be back?"

Tess sed a luirls, I'm sure your father is fine He kno to take care of hi to ease their minds

But as she stared down into Katie's earnest, frightened eyes, she knew she couldn't do that They were a faether "I don't knoish I did"

They lapsed into silence, each lost in her own fears, her own thoughts Tess tried to calm herself down, tried to call upon the rational scientist she'd been all her life, but she couldn't quite e it She was so afraid

Focus Concentrate

She took a deep, ragged breath and counted silently to ten She had to be strong now For Jack, for the children He was in trouble, real trouble, and he needed her She

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