ees scrubbing the sticky, red stain from t

ab

't Ryan. It was a face I hadn't seen in years, a face tha

tth

wn up together in Queens before my family' s fortune evaporated and his had skyrocketed. There was an old,

more mature, but his eyes were the same-kind

"I came as soon as I could. What happened here?" He

r, the loneliness of the past few days crashed down on me all at once. I told him ever

. He didn't call me crazy. He didn't doubt me for a second. When I was don

this alone," he said, his voice f

at him.

best medical facilities. You can be safe there. You can have peace." He looked up at me, his gaze direct and sin

ne and vineyards, far away from the toxic, claustropho

an escape. A new

up a mess that wasn't his. This was real. This was a lif

ing like a key turning in a lock.

or the first time since I'd woken up in th