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I wrap my hand around the strap of my bag and look toward the road where Spencer disappeared.

I walked out of the hospital carrying the happiest news of my life.

And Spencer has already found a way to make me afraid of losing it.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Bane

JULY 6TH

Babs balances another wooden block on top of the tower. Biddy braces the base with both hands, watching the wobble with the concentration of someone defusing a bomb.

Sprout circles them with a tennis ball clamped between his teeth, tail sweeping through the construction zone every time he passes.

“It needs another floor,” Babs says, reaching for another block.

Biddy catches her wrist before she gets that far. “It needs stronger walls.”

“Taller is better.”

“Taller falls faster.”

I lean back on the couch with my coffee, watching Babs weigh her options before choosing optimism over engineering. She adds the block anyway, and the whole tower caves in around Sprout, who happily scoops up a piece and trots off as though he’d been waiting for his chance to help.

“I almost had it,” Babs says.

Mom glances over from the stove, where she’s stirring dinner. “You almost redecorated the living room.”

“I built it.”

“You did,” Mom agrees. “Gravity finished it.”

Babs is already gathering blocks to start again when my phone vibrates on the coffee table.

Emma.

I answer before the second ring. “Hey.”

“Hi.”

The tiredness in her greeting tightens every muscle in my body. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m home.”

Relief comes fast enough that I finally breathe, but it fades when she doesn’t say anything else. “What did the doctor say?”

“They discharged me.”

I wait for the rest.

It doesn’t come.

“I need to ask you something,” she says instead.

I grip the phone tighter. “Anything.”

“Can you come over?”