Sometimes it was a knot in his throat when he heard a little girl laughing on the street.
Other times it was a crushing weight every time he passed a park and saw parents pushing their children on the swings.
Five years had passed since his daughter, Sofia, vanished on what had otherwise been an ordinary afternoon. The world kept spinning — but for Thomas, time had never moved beyond that day.
At 42, Thomas was one of Chicago’s most successful real estate magnates.
He had built a multi-million-dollar empire, drove a Bentley that turned heads wherever it went, and lived in a mansion in an exclusive neighborhood where everything sparkled…
Except his eyes.
He could sign million-dollar contracts without blinking.
But he couldn’t look at a photo of Sofia without feeling his soul split in two.
That afternoon, he was driving back from yet another hollow meeting. They had closed a major deal — people congratulated him, praised him — but all he felt was exhaustion.
On impulse, he asked his chauffeur to switch seats and decided to drive himself through downtown, taking a different route, as if changing streets might somehow change something inside him.