#Chapter 63: Softly, as I Leave You

Kadeem Ardal flung open the door, her face an exquisite portrait of frazzled despair. Her eyes widened in disbelief when she saw him - quickly replaced by a harried disappointment flooding her face. She looked like a drowning woman who had fought desperately for the shore, only to find the island she finally reached was just a mirage. "Kadeem?" A choking endearment welled up in Kadeem's chest as he took her in, framed in the threshold of the doorway, the unedited chaos of parenthood all around her. Her beauty was unadorned and wild - hair undone in messy waves, her face scrubbed clean of make-up. She stood barefoot, hairbrush in one hand, phone in the other, with Lottie clinging tightly to her soft pink dress. Lottie tugged at Ardal’s dress excitedly, jumping up and down to get closer to Kadeem. "Hi," he said, his voice nearly drowned out by the ear-splitting screams of rowdy little boys running through the house. Ardal looked back into the house, clearl