I returned home from military service, hoping to see my wife’s smile. Instead, I found a coffin in the middle of the living room. “She d:ied in childbirth…”

stopped halfway to his mouth.

“What is that?” he demanded.

I closed my fist around it. “You tell me.”

Mother recovered first. “Probably something from her phone. She was obsessed with recording everything. Pregnancy made her paranoid.”

Upstairs, the baby cried again.

I straightened and forced my face empty. Rage was useful only when controlled. Before deployment,continue reading …