I had been gone for five days, but nothing prepared me for what I saw when I opened the door: my wife juggling dinner and our sick toddler, while my mother and sister sat nearby on their phones.

tighten painfully inside his chest.

“Lauren,” he asked carefully, “how long has Noah been sick?”

She turned toward him in surprise.

For half a second, relief flashed across her exhausted face before disappearing beneath sheer fatigue.

“Since Tuesday night,” she whispered. “High fever. Coughing. Barely sleeping.”

Ethan slowly looked toward his mother and continue reading …