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Part 26

Dan's POV

"Eliza?" I said loudly as me and the kids walked into the large house.

There was no answer even though all of her things were here. We walked farther inside, making our way to the kitchen first. I said her name again but there was still no answer. "Dad, where could she be?" Mathew asked.

I shrugged my shoulders, "stay here with your siblings. I'm gonna go look upstairs."

Mathew nodded his head and then I went to the staircase and made my way up as quietly as possible. I didn't know what to expect from this situation at all, I just wanted to be as careful as possible. Maybe she just wasn't here and I was freaking out for no reason, but this was Eliza.

"Eliza?" I said one more time as I opened the door to our room. I saw the bathroom door wide open and the lights were on so I just figured she fell asleep in the tub or something at this point. Wouldn't be the first time. You give that woman a good candle, a book, bubbles, and a glass of wine and she'll easily fall asleep in there.

I walked inside and turned to the bath and there she was, eyes closed. I couldn't help but laugh a little and then I shook her shoulder and said her name. There was still no response though. No, I thought to myself. No, this can't be happening. Not now.

Shaking her shoulder more roughly my heart was beating out of my chest. "Fuck," I said, feeling tears rushing to my eyes.

No matter how much I hated this woman she was still the one I married, the one I fell for in high school, the mother to my kids. There was no way I could just lose her like this. "Dad, did you find her?" I heard Jake yell from downstairs.

"Eliza, you have to wake up. Please fucking wake up," I said, looking at her.

I gave up and then looked around and saw a bottle of pills sitting on the floor right by my feet. My hand reached into my pocket and then I pulled my phone out and quickly dialed in 911. As the phone rang I just closed my eyes and tried to take in the whole of what was going on right now.

After I settled things on the phone I made my way downstairs and I couldn't even fathom how I was going to drop this on the kids. The three of them were still standing there altogether in the kitchen and immediately they noticed I was crying. "What happened, dad?" Jake asked.

"Your mom," I said, "she's gone."

Mathew immediately understood but Jake took a couple of seconds. Avery looked up at me with her eyebrows furrowed though, "is she coming back?"

I shook my head, looking into her soft eyes, "no, she's not Avery."

I am so sorry that this is such a short chapter guys- I have more to come and we'll be wrapping this story up soon. I don't know exactly how many more parts I'll be publishing before the story will end but as soon as I do have an exact amount I will let you know. (Hopefully, I'll have a number at the end of the next chapter that I publish).