Renee and Scott had gotten married several years ago and although they had a good marriage it wasn’t without fault. Scott was in his seventies and Renee in her fifties. He had been married before. Scott loved his first wife and he often made that known to Renee. They'd gotten married when they were nineteen and stayed married thirty years, until she was killed in a car crash. He'd never gotten over it. Renee would often burst into tears, but Scott thought then that she was just tenderhearted, but it wasn't that. It was that Missy, the first wife, should still have him. She was clearly so far superior that it wasn't even right that she should be living in Missy's house. Every time Scott mentioned Missy, it tore Renee apart. She would cry in secret for days. When it finally dawned on Scott what was happening, he tried to talk it over with her, insisting that it didn't lessen his feelings for her to have loved someone once. But when he said that, it was like cold steel in her heart. She only wanted to pack her things and flee. For a while, he was angry at Renee. He'd been married thirty years, he cried. Was he supposed to never mention anything that happened in all that time because it involved Missy? That was silly. That was unfair to him. She needed to get over it. It hurt Renee even more when Scott finally accepted she'd never be able to deal with it. He stopped speaking Missy's name. It was so artificial and obvious, it just about killed her.
One morning Renee woke with a startle. Without opening her eyes she slowly moved her hand across the mattress as if making a snow angle. She felt nothing. In fact, the bed was cold. Then she realized she was also cold, and didn’t have a blanket across her. With the feeling of dread, fear and pain inside her, she quickly opened her eyes. “Scott?” She shouted. There was an awkward silence, and then a sudden grunt sound. This was too much like three years ago, when his middle-of-the-night stroke...