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A faint smile touches her mouth. "Ah. So yes."

"You're making a lot of assumptions."

"I've known you your entire life."

"Unfortunately."

I wrap my hands around a paper coffee cup I'd grabbed on the way out of the resource center. The coffee's gone lukewarm, but it gives me an excuse to do something besides stare at Maggie and catalogue every change.

Finally, I ask the question that's been tearing through me since the day she vanished. "What happened?"

Maggie's gaze drops to her hands.

That's when I notice the marks around one wrist.

The bruising has mostly faded, yellow and brown replacing the darker colors, but I can still see where fingers once dug into her skin.

Every muscle in my body locks. "Maggie."

She rubs her thumb across her palm and keeps looking down. "He wasn't like that in the beginning."

The words hit me before the name does.

Then everything clicks.

Tom.

I should've known.

Every uneasy feeling I'd ever had around him rises from the grave and starts screaming that it was right all along.

Maggie lets out a brittle laugh. "He was charming. Remember that? Everybody liked him. He'd walk into a room and somehow leave with three new friends and somebody's barbecue invitation."

I remember.

I hated it.

Tom could make a stranger feel like the most interesting person in the world within five minutes.

"At first, he made me feel special," she continues. "Like I mattered more than anyone else."

I stay silent.

She doesn't need interruptions. She needs room.

"He'd get jealous sometimes. I thought it was romantic." Her mouth twists. "Turns out locking your girlfriend out of her own birthday dinner because she talked to a coworker isn't a grand gesture."

The attempt at humor falls apart halfway through.

My stomach turns.

"He always had a reason. There was always an explanation. He was stressed. He was worried. He was afraid of losing me."

Rain drums against the shelter roof while Maggie stares past me, seeing a version of her life I can't reach.

"The first time he hurt me, he cried longer than I did." She lets out a hollow laugh. "That's probably impressive in a deeply disturbing way."

I close my eyes.