#Chapter 70: Gone Girl

Alaric The fire had long since burned down to embers by the time I woke up, the faint glow barely illuminating the dark room. Fat snowflakes drifted lazily through the air outside the window, the glass frosted with white starbursts. Had I really fallen asleep on my office sofa? As I moved to sit up, I felt something in my hand, and I glanced down to find the photograph still clutched between my fingers. The photo. It was an old picture of the three of us. Me, Sarah, and Ella in the garden just days after her first birthday. It wasn’t long before Sarah’s disappearance, and we looked happy. Sarah’s hand was resting on my chest, her head tilted against my shoulder, and I was smiling. That was back before I completely stopped smiling for all those years. I stared down at the photo in my hand for too long, waiting for something to stir inside of me. But nothing did. The bittersweet ache of nostalgia that I thought I would feel never came. It