Her Dead Husband Walked Out of the Ocean
Chapter 1: The Man from the Sea
"Mom, look. It's Dad."
Sienna froze.
She had been watching the waves, not expecting anything except another quiet afternoon with her daughter. But the way little Ava said it made her turn.
A man was walking out of the ocean.
He was tall, broad-shouldered, and dripping with seawater. At first, Sienna only stared because something about him felt familiar. Then Ava pointed again.
"Look at his arm."
Sienna narrowed her eyes.
On the man's upper arm was a tattoo.
Her face.
She stopped breathing.
"No," she whispered. "That's impossible."
Her husband, Damon, had drowned seven years ago. They had never found his body. She had buried an empty coffin and spent years trying to teach Ava that some people did not come back.
But the man had Damon's height. Damon's shoulders. Damon's way of walking, slow and steady, like nothing could rush him.
He stopped a few feet away.
For a long moment, nobody spoke.
Ava held Sienna's hand tightly.
Sienna forced herself to ask, "Who are you?"
The man's face twisted with pain.
Then he looked at Ava.
"You still braid her hair too tight on the left side," he said.
Sienna staggered back.
Damon used to say that every Sunday morning when Ava was a baby.
No one else knew.
"Damon?" she whispered.
The man took one step closer.
"I came back," he said.
Sienna almost ran to him.
Then she saw something behind him.
A second figure was rising from the sea.
And Damon turned pale.
