Andy felt Anneke's body go tense as they woke to the harsh sound of the phone. He checked the time as he reached for it. 5:45 am. Almost noon in Eindhoven. Just about the earliest you would make that first call to the States if you had been waiting all morning to do so. He heard Anneke's ragged intake of breath as he made the intercept, just as he had done a year ago with her father's stroke.

A mixture of relief, confusion and then dread flooded through him as he heard his nephew's voice instead of his mother-in-law's.

"Uncle Andy?" Silas sounded like he was 14 again. Not just the uncertainty in his voice, but even the use of the moniker "Uncle." Andy had the presence of mind to reassure his wife that it was his family on the call, not hers. The almost imperceptible flash of relief passed through her eyes in an instant. 5:30 was still too early for it not to be horrible news. She reached over to gently rub his back.

It was Andy's turn to steady himself. In a way, he had always been expecting this. Even though her business ventures were legit now (well, mostly, technically, sort of), Nancy had always been running on borrowed time. She was never content with the status quo, and thrill seeking was the oxygen that kept her going. If she didn't have a worthy enemy to outsmart or outmaneuver, she either found one or created one. This dreaded day was actually long overdue, and he felt a strange sort of relief that it was finally here.

He took a deep breath, "How did hit happen? Tell me."

His nephew's next statement forced him to recalibrate. "No, it's Shane. He's been missing for two days. They found his body in dumpster on the pier about an hour ago. Supposedly a mafia hit. Mom has gone to identify him." his voice cracked, "I offered to go, but she insisted on doing it, and doing it alone. I couldn't stop her."

A wave of nausea washed through Andy as he struggled to figure out how he felt. He loved Shane, of course, even if he didn't always understand him. He transitioned to despair, not only for the loss of Shane, but the loss of the other Shane that could have been, if only the circumstances had been different. This, of course, led straight back to Judah, the original loss. And now the loss of Judah's bloodline. Over. The End. No more. Unfair. Unfair, Unfair, Unfair.

Andy tried to focus in on what Silas was saying. He was asking him to come back to Connecticut, to attend the burial and then to sit shiva with the family, if he was willing.

"And can you bring your wife and daughters? I know they are too young to stay for whole week, but it might help. You know, for us to be able to see more Botwins for a couple of days. For her to see, mostly. To see that there are more, I guess. I know it's a lot to ask."

Andy paused to think it through. He looked back at Anneke, his amazing, devoted wife. In every way Nancy's equal, but who had created a partnership with him that nurtured instead of tortured. He tried to picture her in the same room as Nancy but the image wouldn't come into focus; it kept slipping away. They were so different – he wasn't sure that the laws of nature would allow them to exist in the same time and space. That little spark of thrill seeker buried deep inside him started to tickle. He pushed it back down again.

"I'll come out for the funeral and burial, and then maybe Anneke and the girls can join us later on the weekend. We'll see how it goes."

The relief was evident in Silas' tone, "Thank you so much, Andy. We'll have the jet pick you up at Thompkins Regional this afternoon. I'll call you back as soon as the flight plan is filed. This is really going to help her. Help us. Thank you. And I love you."

"I love you too, Silas." Andy hung up and turned to his wife. She opened her arms as he lay back down and wept.

TO BE CONTINUED