Searching For- Your Daddy Ditched Me Again In- -

This was the third time. The first, she’d cried. The second, she’d screamed. Now, she just felt the familiar, hollow thud of a pattern completing itself. Your Daddy Ditched Me Again.

“You have arrived.”

For the first time in six years, she wasn't searching for anything. She was just sitting in the quiet, her son breathing softly behind her, the snow erasing every road behind her. Searching for- Your Daddy Ditched Me Again in-

She laughed, a dry, cracked sound. It was the most honest conversation she’d had all year. The GPS wasn’t mocking her; it was just stating facts. She was always searching for him. Always recalculating her life around his exits. This was the third time

Lena stared at the lie. She’d already seen his location share flicker on for thirty seconds by accident. He wasn’t in Rawlins. He was in a Holiday Inn two exits west of here, the one with the indoor pool Eli had been begging to visit. Now, she just felt the familiar, hollow thud

Lena turned off the phone.

When Eli woke up, she’d tell him they were going on a new adventure. Just the two of them.