I gasped, earning his attention. He turned my way with worried eyes before he smiled at me. The corners of his mouth lifted and his cheeks puffed out, but the smile never really reached his eyes.

“Oh hi, Mommy, are we leaving now?” he asked.

I swallowed over the sandpaper in my throat and nodded. “Yeah, baby. It’s time to go home.”

He stood, shaking the sand from his shorts. “Good, because I don’t want to play with the monster anymore.”

I felt dizzy. He words were so close to the last ones his father had spoken minutes before he basically took his own life.

“What monster, baby? I don’t see anyone.”

Christopher laughed, his baby soft cheeks reddening and his dark blue eyes glistening. “You can’t see him, silly. He’s inside of me, Mommy.”