I can’t live like this.
But he did.
I had been so furious that my stutter swallowed everything else I wanted to say.
He left while I was still fighting for the words.
Now his name has done it again.
D-don’t you dare say that…
***
Dr. Carter said, “There is something you don’t know.”
“What?”
“Ethan contacted me two years ago.”
I stared at him. “Two years?”
“And before me, he’d already contacted other specialists.”
Now his name has done it again.
“Where?”
“Boston. Toronto. Zurich. Berlin.”
“O-oh my G-God.”
“He kept sending research, asking whether anything applied to Hailey.”
Hailey stared at him. “He’s been doing this the whole time?”
He’d already contacted other specialists.
“Not perfectly. Not consistently. But for years.”
***
I called Ethan from the parking lot.
“Claire? Did something happen to Hailey?”
“Where are you?”
“Flagstaff.”
Forty minutes away.
Not perfectly. Not consistently.
“I came because the German team…”
“Coffee shop on Birch. Thirty minutes.”
“Claire…”
“Thirty.”
I thought I had one question for Ethan.
By the time I left that coffee shop, the money would be the easiest part to understand.
I came because the German team…
***
Ethan was already waiting.
