Finally, she straightens, defeat written across her face. "Your father got you into Elm Hall. You can move whenever you're ready."
I glance at the empty suitcase already in my closet. "I'll be ready soon."
She blinks. "You're going today?"
"I want to stop at the hospital first to see Cody."
She offers to help me move. I tell her I don't need it. She gives me that long, unreadable look she's been giving me for days, and then she drops it.
I don’t pack anything crazy, just my essentials. It only takes an hour.
The hospital visit is brief.
He's still. So still. Tubes, monitors, the mechanical rhythm of machines doing the work his body can't.
I pull a chair close and fold my hand around his. "I'm here," I say quietly. "I'm not going anywhere."
I watch his chest rise and fall, willing something — a finger twitch, an eyelid flutter, anything — to cross the distance between us.
Nothing.
"Tell me who did this," I whisper. "Tell me, and I'll handle the rest."
He doesn't answer.
I kiss his cheek, put the chair back, and make myself walk out.
In the parking lot, I pull his laptop from under my seat. The metal is cold in my hands. I've been afraid to open it since the camera dot. Since the texts. But I'm running out of options — the police have done nothing, Judge Ravenshaw is absorbed in managing the public narrative, and I'm the only one left who actually needs to know the truth.
I open it. Enter the password. The same bare desktop stares back at me. One folder. Locked.
I try it three times before I give up and call Julian.
"Do you know anyone who can recover files from a locked laptop?"
He sucks in a breath. "That's rough. Everything's encrypted now. It's not like the old days."
"I know, but it's Cody's. It's completely wiped except for one folder that won't open."
Silence.
"What if it's just his midterm paper in there?" He laughs.
I stare through the windshield. "Right. Never mind."
"Aw, Adela, don't—"
I hang up.
A shadow crosses my window.
I look up and yelp, slamming the laptop shut.
A tall figure stands at my driver's side door, looking down at me. Sharp blue eyes. His gaze drops to the laptop for half a second too long.
I crack the window with a racing heart. "Can I help you?"
He tilts his head. "You don't remember me?"
