Ashfall: A Wife's Forbidden Stand
Data sets, simulations, and predictive models—numbers were easier to face than memory.
I worked late every night, and my colleagues acknowledged my dedication. What they didn't know was that I was afraid to go home, afraid of the silence, and afraid that the image of Richard's charred body would surface the moment I was alone.
One night, exhausted to the bone, I arrived home—and froze.
Talia was sprawled on my couch.
She looked terrible. Her cheeks were hollow, her eyes swollen—the kind of exhaustion that came from days of crying without sleep.
The moment she saw me, she shot to her feet. "Joshua, let's talk."