Stop hoping. Stop torturing yourself over Neil Butler.
I leaned against his shoulder and nodded. "Don't let it happen again."
Kent wriggled over too, his little voice soft and earnest. "I'll keep an eye on Daddy from now on. I'll make sure he remembers everything about Mommy."
The two of them kept their word.
They never got "Lucy's" preferences wrong again.
After I was discharged, Neil brought me home.
In the years since my death, I'd stayed by their side as a spirit, watching over them.
I knew Neil couldn't bear to throw away anything I'd left behind. He'd kept the house exactly the way it was and refused to let anyone change a thing.
Once, Lucy had the nerve to come over uninvited and toss out the bead art project I'd been halfway through making with Kent. Neil lost his temper completely.
Afterward, he went digging through the trash himself, not caring how it looked, and sat down with Kent to piece every bead back together before returning it to its spot.
But now...
I looked around the living room.
The bead art on the entryway shelf was gone.
The vase I'd bought for the coffee table had vanished.