I had been gone for five days, but nothing prepared me for what I saw when I opened the door: my wife juggling dinner and our sick toddler, while my mother and sister sat nearby on their phones.

And sitting comfortably at the island were Ethan’s mother Patricia and his younger sister Melissa.

Patricia calmly scrolled through her phone beside a half-finished coffee.

Melissa sat with earbuds in, laughing quietly at something on TikTok.

Neither woman moved.

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Ethan felt something tighten painfully inside his chest.

“Lauren,” he asked carefully, “how long has Noah been sick?”

She turned toward him in surprise.

For half a second, relief flashed across her exhausted face before disappearing beneath sheer fatigue.