I came home from a work trip and my horse was gone. My husband said he sold him, but it was the call I overheard that shattered me. He thought I’d move on.

Instead, I made a choice. You don’t take what someone loves and expect them to stay quiet…

You never expect the stall to be empty.

The quiet hits first, the kind of quiet that doesn’t make sense in a place where breathing should be. I stood just inside the barn doorway, frozen.

The air was clean, still, and wrong.

Spirit’s stall was open. The feed bucket hadn’t been touched. And his halter was missing from the hook.

“Spirit?” I called softly, knowing full well he wasn’t there.

Where would a horse hide?

I walked the fence line anyway, boots heavy in the dirt, whispering his name into the morning wind.

Spirit had never been a runner.

He was 20 years old and gentle and patient. His knees clicked when he walked. He didn’t go anywhere unless I asked him to.

The gate was latched.

Nothing was broken, and there were no prints in the mud.

I stood in the middle of the barn, hand resting on the beam he used to lean against after long rides, and felt the panic crack something loose inside my chest.

“Where did you go, my boy?” I whispered.

**

Spirit had been mine since I was 13.

My parents got him for me after a summer of babysitting and saving, when most girls my age were begging for phones and makeup. He was barely weaned when I brought him home. I named him Spirit because he kicked the fence once and then stood there like he hadn’t.

We grew up together.

He carried me through every hard year, and every heartbreak.

I rode him in local shows, through trails in the fall, and once, after my mom passed, I sat in his stall for hours with my arms around his neck because I didn’t know where else to go.

He wasn’t just a horse. He was… my history.

I walked into the kitchen and found my husband at the counter.

Sky was spreading butter on his toast without a care in the world.

“Have you seen Spirit?” I asked, already bracing.

He didn’t look up.

“Yeah, Willa. I sold him while you were visiting your dad. It was about a week ago.

It’s better this way.”

My heart stopped.

“He was old, Willa,” Sky said, shrugging like it was obvious. “He was going to die soon anyway.”

“And you didn’t think to ask me?!”

“My gosh. Are we really doing this now?