They Are Falling Apart

Very early the following morning Lara brought Helen downstairs to give her a drink of milk. She’d always woken up at the crack of dawn, and nothing seemed to be changing about that since they’d arrived in Baguio.

As she walked outside onto the terrace she saw that Chris was swimming. She sat at the table with Helen on her lap as Chris powered through the water beside them. She never tired of watching him—he was a natural swimmer, and he seemed to glide at super-speed through the water with the effortless strength of a dolphin.

It was a beautiful morning—still so early that the sea was a shimmering silver-blue and the sky was tinged pale apricot from the recent sunrise. Lara felt good—genuinely happy that Chris had brought her with him.

He finished his lengths and lifted his head, noticing her for the first time. She lifted her hand to wave at him as he swam over to the steps—just as she had done so many times in the past.