Mia wasn't entirely sure what she was supposed to do in this situation. While a very strong part of her wanted to lose it completely, scream and cry and stomp her feet, or maybe just lay in bed for hours on end and stare at her ceiling through the dark, count the tiles in her bathroom over and over until the lines started to disappear, but none of those was plausible. Mia had four children at home, one of which was about to turn one in a few days- she wasn't even sure how she was going to bring herself to celebrate Angelo's birthday without his grandpa there- and there was the rest of her family, especially her mom.
What she could do, though, was leave the kids with her husband while she went to check on her mother. Bearing the latest hardly decipherable drawings from Benny and Gino, she had approached the house only to smell a distinctly burnt odor. She hesitated for a moment, before slowly pushing open the door.
"Mom?" she called softly. "It's Mia."
Suicide. He'd done this to himself. Left them all without warning. It made her feel nauseous walking through their house knowing he'd never walk through it again.