Megan couldn’t have envisioned the chaos of the next few weeks if she’d tried. One of the other detectives had a death in the family, which meant Paul and all the remaining detectives had to pull extra shifts. If that weren’t bad enough, as things were returning to normal, some of the officers came down with the flu. As often happens, the illness slowly spread through the department. It was only a matter of time before Paul came down with the bug.
The week before Chloe was supposed to leave for a month away with her grandparents, Paul arrived home one evening looking paler than usual. Megan knew almost immediately something was off. When Chloe ran over to greet her father, instead of picking her up, he hugged her against his leg, and ruffled her hair.
“Chloe, can you get the milk out for
