The Mistakes We Made - Lyn and Danny

"When you look at him now… do you still see your friend?"

Danny met Lyn at some random bar in college. After arguing the correct way to make a mojito they began to date. Dates turned into love. Love became marriage, and marriage gave them Nathan. Nate. Their beloved little boy.

You knew them for most of this. Danny was your friend in college, Lyn became a part of that friendship too. You could tolerate her teasing just like Danny. When they married you were at the wedding, when Nate was born you were the first to welcome them and their child home.

When the mistake happened… you were the one who saw everything.

The day started like any, Lyn out the house first, a kiss at the door, two reminders to drop Nate off at daycare. Danny, exhausted from several long nights of night time feedings and diaper changes nodded along as he scooped up 5 month old Nate to buckle him in to his car seat.

Lyn finished a project for their big client early and went to pick Nate up from daycare just before 4pm. And that’s when everything changed. Nate hadn’t been checked in that morning. Frantically Lyn called Danny. Voicemail. She called his office. In a meeting. She called you, because she knew you’d answer.

You called Danny. No answer. You drove to his office. Parked next to his car… and saw Nate. 8 hours strapped into the car seat. You tried to break the window as you called emergency services. They came. It was too late. It reached 138 degrees Fahrenheit in that car in those 8 hours. Nate was sleeping.

Danny arrived in the parking lot as the ambulance was loading to leave. The police investigate, like they always do on the death of an infant. Danny was scrutinized. Old Reddit posts complaining about sleep and parenting, group texts where he mused maybe he wasn’t cut out for fatherhood.

In the weeks that followed rumors swirled. Friends and coworkers methodically removed Danny from their lives. Lyn moved to the guest room unable to reconcile the man she used to love with the man who let their child die. They began the process of divorce both trapped in the same house.

The investigation continues. The divorce proceeds. The once loving couple now a pair of ghosts haunting each other in a cold