Life changed in an instant. An ordinary Tuesday became anything but when I received a call from my five-year-old daughter, Alice.“Daddy? Mommy left.”** My world tilted. I raced home, panic rising as I found my house silent, Alice asleep on the couch. In the kitchen, a plain white envelope held Laurel’s words: **“I can’t live like this anymore.”** The nightmare had begun. In the days that followed, I dug into Laurel’s life. With Mark’s help, we uncovered unsettling clues—mysterious purchases, secret meetings, and emails with a man named Michael. Her behavior hinted at a deeper struggle, one I’d missed. Was Laurel escaping pain I hadn’t noticed? Mark’s discovery of Laurel’s emails exposed her desire to escape. The more I learned, the more I realized how little I understood her. I began questioning my own failures as a partner. A tip led us to “The Hideaway,” where Laurel had been meeting someone in secret. There, I noticed a familiar woman whose presence raised more questions