Malik met her gaze. “Then stay.”
“No,” Kimberly said. “Go.”
Carter made a move for the door. “Ah, Alice? I can’t wait any longer.” He held out his hand.
“She’s going,” Kimberly said.
“She’s staying,” Malik countered. “He’s got the flash drive. He doesn’t need her any longer.”
“Ah, but maybe he does—and maybe she does.”
Malik touched Kimberly’s cheek. “Babe, what are you talking about?”
“Alice?” Carter said.
Alice took his hand. “I’m coming.”
“Look after each other!” Kimberly called, as Alice and Carter made for the backyard.
“You too!” Alice yelled back.
Chapter 25
Alice
Carter started the car. “Any time you want to parachute out, you know you’re holding the ripcord.”
Alice shuddered. “I tried parachuting once. I’d rather go down with the plane. Can I conclude that Malik leaned on you?”
“Yup.”
“What did you say?”
“I said it was your choice, and that I would protect you as much as I could. And that I couldn’t vouch for the authorities doing the same.” He turned the car and headed back the way they’d come. He’d been concerned that the late-model Audi was too ostentatious, but Alice was just happy to have a comfortable seat, though on the way over she’d caught herself leaning into the corners, to his amusement. “All that stuff in the media,” he said. “They’re trying to scare you into losing your nerve.”
“It might be working. But I wanna know what’s on that flash drive first.”
“Malik also said that your sister is deteriorating faster.”
“I could tell.”
“You all right?”
“Not really. I’ve never been all right with it. But Kimberly’s determined to set the rules. I wouldn’t want everyone hanging around me like well-intentioned vultures either.”
“I guess you’ve both been here before. That’s gotta color things.”
“Every time has been different, but one thing I know? There’s never enough time at the end. While someone’s seriously ill, you spend all this time in denial, trying to keep spirits up, trying to keep ‘positive,’ looking for signs of improvement while trying to explain away the signs of deterioration. No one wants to talk about what happens if the treatments or whatever don’t work. Even when the end is approaching fast, you’re pinning your hopes on that last-minute rally. And there usually is one, right before the last decline. By the time you accept it’s truly the end, it’s usually too late to say all the things you’d been avoiding. Which is why Kimberly’s making a point of saying all those things now, talking about the inevitability of her death. Normalizing it. Joking about it.”
“That’s an incredible attitude. How old is she?”
“Twenty-eight.”
He blew out a breath.
“I know, right? She’s determined to be the perfect role model for all people dying too soon. Which annoys me. Death isn’t something a twenty-eight-year-old should calmly accept.” Alice’s eyes stung. She turned to look out the window, though the suburban streets were a blur. “And she sure as hell shouldn’t be counseling everyone else over it. But I guess that gives her something to focus on that’s not… My other sister—Poppy—was diagnosed with depression before she died. That was so hard to watch. There is no comfort at all you can give to someone in that situation, and Kimberly felt particularly powerless. She’s fighting so hard against…” Alice’s throat closed up.
“Alice?”
