be, who were being paid by the hour to wait her out. Alena could hear them through the door, trading theories,

ed in both hands like a talisman. The screen had gone dark, conserving battery, and she didn'

selected because it reminded her of her grandmother's house in Ohio. She crawled to

el

ough digital compression, stripped of all human

ou get thi

o still forwards you chain emails." A pause, the sound of papers shuffling. "Shall I read you t

ll, her fingers pressing into

itchen island. Sign it. Initial each page. T

if I

where your father receives his dialysis treatments." Blackwood's voice dropped, intimate, almost kind. "Your mother still volunteers at th

already trembling from the early Parkinson's she refused to acknowledge, h

n," she w

n." Blackwood's voice hardened. "But Ms. Gordon? This is your only warning. The next t

ne wen

vement in the hallway, the shuffle of equipment, the diminishing murmur of disappointed predato

creensaver, rotating images of

-point font. She didn't read it. She couldn't have processed the words if she'd tried. She signed where the tabs indi

re no uniform, offered no identificat

hollow space where her anger had been. She walked to the bathroom, turned on the shower, and stood under water hot eno

ing her reflection emerge in fragments. Eyes swollen. Cheeks flushed. The lig

er, the expensive cream he bo

g caught the light, something that shouldn't be there, a pin

e. Close enough to touch, close enough to see: a lens, no larger than a grain

t of smashing it, of screaming into it, of givi

uldn't see. She pulled the suitcase from beneath the bed, the one she'd packed for a vacation they'd never taken, and she began to

ow knew were everywhere, in everything, watching her breathe and slee

ess trip, a family emergency, any of the lies she would need to tell. When the suitcase was full, she zipped it c

overs, fully dressed, and stared