TOWARD THE DISTANCE Chapter 12

Cade spent one full day in a fog. He didn't eat. He didn't sleep. He sat in the bedroom — Elena's bedroom, their bedroom — and did nothing.

That night, he couldn't stay in bed. The sheets were wrong — too smooth, too cool, made of silk that took forever to warm up. He remembered that when they were younger, poorer, happier, they'd slept on plain cotton sheets and held each other for warmth. It had been enough. More than enough.

He moved to Elena's side of the bed and lay there, hoping to feel something — a ghost of her warmth, the indent her body had left in the mattress. Something that proved she had been here.

At midnight, his alarm went off. He'd set it himself, weeks ago, for some forgotten reason. The sound felt absurd in the silence.

He remembered the jewelry box.

It was still on the vanity table, exactly where Elena had left it. He picked it up — small enough to hold in one hand — and opened it.

Inside was a lump of silver. Shapeless. Dull. It looked like something you'd find in the bottom of a toolbox.

Cade turned it over in his fingers, frowning. What was this? Why had Elena given him a piece of raw metal and called it a gift?

Then his hand drifted — instinctively, the way it always did — to his left ring finger. The silver band he'd spent weeks shaping, polishing, engraving with their initials.

CH & EA.

He looked at the lump of metal in his palm again.

It hit him like a punch to the sternum.

This was her ring.

She had melted it down.

Cade closed his fist around the silver and pressed it against his mouth. The sound that came out of him wasn't quite a cry — it was something rawer than that, something that had been building for days and had finally found its way out.

Elena hadn't left in anger. She hadn't left hoping he'd chase her. She had left with absolute, final certainty — and she had made sure he understood exactly what that meant.

He drove to the police station that same night, still in the clothes he'd been wearing all day, his hair unwashed and his eyes bloodshot.

"I need to report my wife missing," he said, his voice cracking. "I think she might be in danger. She might hurt herself."

It was the only reason he could think of that would make them take the case seriously. An adult leaving her own home wasn't a crime. But a woman in crisis — that was something they'd act on.

The police worked through the night with him, searching every lead he could provide. By dawn, they had nothing.

A female officer sat him down and asked, gently but directly: "Mr. Harrington — has there been any conflict between you and your wife recently?"

"No," Cade said. "We're… we've always been happy."

The officer studied him for a moment. She'd seen hundreds of cases like this. She knew exactly what the evasion looked like.

"If you genuinely want to find her," she said, "you need to tell us the truth. Otherwise, we can't help you."

Cade's face burned. He looked at the table.

"I… I've been seeing someone else," he said. "Outside the marriage. She found out."

The officer nodded — no surprise, no judgment. Just acknowledgment.

"So your wife left because of the affair."

Cade couldn't speak. He just nodded.

A phone rang — his phone. He grabbed it, desperate, hoping —

It was a lawyer. A man he'd never heard of, speaking in a calm, professional tone.

"Mr. Harrington? My name is David Chen. I represent your wife, Elena. She's asked me to meet with you in person regarding your divorce. Are you available?"

"I'm available. I'm coming right now."