The last pieces 2

Tabitha 

I close the garage door and enter the side 

door into the kitchen. All the lights are off, so the 

room is darker than it could have been. The days 

are getting longer but there still isn’t enough 

sunlight coming through the windows to help me 

see well. I flip on the switch, and everything 

looks the same as when I left. 

“Kyle? Honey, I’m home!” I call out, hoping 

to hear him yell back. 

I listen carefully and hear nothing. The house 

doesn’t even creak. I set my bag down on the 

counter and walked out of the kitchen toward 

the stairs in the back. I walk up to the second 

floor and head toward our bedroom. Maybe he 

went to take a shower? Walking into the 

bedroom, I see that the lights are all off. The 

1/6 

Chapter 2 

bathroom door is open and there’s no one 

inside. I turn and head toward his office only to 

see from the hall that the 

lights are all off in 

there as well. I head toward the front of the 

house where the main stairwell is. 

I reach the top of the stairs when I see him. 

The light of the setting sun hits him just right, 

and I see the noose around his neck. Kyle is 

hanging from the highest beam on the ceiling. A 

scream leaves my mouth as I rush down the 

stairs to him. 

“No, no, no Kyle!” I scream as I reach him. 

I try to lift him up and feel his hand brush 

against mine. Ice cold. He had been there long 

enough for all the heat to leave his body. I sink 

down to the floor, screaming his name over and 

over. My chest feels like it’s collapsing in on 

itself. I’m shaking and unable to breathe as I hear 

someone pounding on the door. 

216 

Chapter 2 

“Tabitha? Tabitha, open the door!” I hear a 

male yelling. 

My mind is so clouded that I can’t think 

straight. When I hear the front door open, I am 

still shouting his name and rocking my body 

back and forth. I hear someone gasp as a pair of 

arms wrap around me. I cry and scream for Kyle 

to wake up, but there’s nothing. He hangs there 

slightly swaying. I hear a female voice 

whispering in my ear to breathe. My only thought 

was that I didn’t know I wasn’t. 

“Yes, I need police and paramedics to 1513 

Sipe road. There was a suicide. Yes. His wife 

found him. No, she’s hysterical. Yes, we’ll stay 

with her.” 

“Tabs, honey it’s Brittany. I need you to 

breathe for me, honey.” 

I finally look up and see my neighbor’s face. 

She gently takes my face in her hands and looks. 

576 

Chapter 2 

me over. She’s mimicking how to take slow, deep breaths and I follow her lead. My head clears, 

and I look over to see her husband Mason 

crouched down beside her. The look on his face 

says it all. Kyle’s gone and I’m left all alone. 

Sadness and pity fill both their eyes. Kyle and I had been neighbors with them for years. Kyle and Mason always played golf together and 

Brittany and I hung out and did girls‘ nights. 

They were our closest friends and for them to 

have to see this is breaking my heart all over 

again. They shouldn’t have to see their friend 

this way. 

“He… he. Why? Why did he do this?” I ask. A 

look of heartbreak passes over Brittany’s face as 

she looks at me. 

“I don’t know, honey. All I know is that he’s 

there, and he has a note pinned to his shirt that 

says sorry.” 

4/8 

Chapter 2 

As she says that, I realize I never noticed the 

note. She’s right, it only says one word, sorry. I 

look at Mason and see him staring down at the 

floor. It’s like he can’t bring himself to look at 

1. me. Or maybe it’s the fact that his best friend 

died. Either way, I can’t seem to get my thoughts 

in order about what to say or do. I hear a knock 

on the door and Mason jumps up to answer. 

Police and paramedics come into the house 

as Brittany helps me up and leads me over to the 

living room. She sits me on the sofa and heads 

to the kitchen to get me some water. I sit in 

place numb to everything that is going on 

around me. I can’t get my head to wrap around 

the fact that my husband killed himself. The man 

who stood in front of the church and God, 

promising to love and protect me, left me. And 

he did it by his own choice. 

A hurt so deep that it could cut through the center of the earth, cuts through me. He chose 

5/6 

Chapter 2 

to leave me. There is nothing in this world that 

could have been worth all that. We could have 

worked through everything. But yet here I sit, 

watching the men from the police and 

paramedics take Kyle down from the noose that 

he used to kill himself. What could have been so 

bad that he couldn’t talk to me about it? 

6/6