short. He was "looking into it," but I knew what that meant. He was

my hospital room. Inside was a flash drive. No no

distance. It showed a restaurant patio. Ryan was there, l

ughter. Davies. The same senator whose name had come up again and again in my father' s case files, th

It was a message, loud and clear: Ryan

oom felt like it was closing in on me. Ryan wasn' t my savior; he

... they were all connected, a web of power and money an

as no w

s hospital bed. And I would spend the rest of my life as

g despair washed over me

all closed to me. It would be so easy. One step, and it would a

ing as if in a dream. I

ight air h

ledge, my hospital gow

hind the prison glass. I thought

once believed in. It was all gone.

off when the door to

isyn,

ha

ulling me back from the edge with so much force we both tumbled to the f

" he whispered, his voice raw w

ears, I let myself break. I sobbed, deep, gut-wrenching sobs of grie

ow and urgent against my hair. "Your father' s ca

His eyes were filled with a fierce determ

don' t even know I know how to use. But you have to cut ties with R

r the catch. All I saw was desperation that mirro

, the word barely aud

f the hospital and into his car. He drove us out of the city, to a secluded guesthouse nestled deep in the woods