Her lips flatten. "Because I was running out of time. I was desperate."
"Time for what?"
Silence.
Then: "Have you found Vee? Do you know where they took her?"
My brain ticks. The shift. The sudden animation in her voice.
"I have a lead," I say.
Marie's whole body changes. She's on her feet, hands wringing, eyes wide and urgent. "Where? Is she coming back? Are you going to get her?"
I look at her.
"Why do you care?" I ask. "You spent months making her life miserable. Why does her location matter to you now?"
The animation closes over and the shutters come back. She turns to the window.
"When are you sending me back?" she asks.
"Tomorrow."
"Then we have nothing left to talk about."
I stand there.
She doesn't look at me again.
I leave with more questions than I came in with and no way to get answers from someone who has decided she's done giving them.
This whole picture is wrong, I just can’t see the shape of it yet. Like how she reacted when I mentioned Vee. The desperation that came and went so fast. The question she didn't answer about what she needed time for.
But I don't have the bandwidth. My pack is falling apart and Vee is gone and I have forms to sign and a lead to follow.
I go back to my study and sit down.
I pick up the pen.
I start filling out the forms, and I tell myself that when Vee is back, I'll understand the rest of it. That everything will make sense once she's home and I'll make things right. She'll forgive me because she always has and we'll go back to what we were.
I believe this.
It doesn't occur to me to ask why she would want to.
Chapter 12
Drake
The sound of Marie's suitcase wheels on the hardwood sets my teeth on edge.
I watch from the kitchen doorway as Ragon rolls it toward the front door, movements mechanical, efficient. Marie follows behind him, her face blotchy from crying. The wailing stopped twenty minutes ago when the registry called and she understood this was actually happening.
Now she just looks resigned.
"Please." Her voice cracks. "Can't you drop me at my cousin Mel’s? I can't go back to the registry."
Ragon doesn't look at her. "You're under registry custody now."
