HE CHOSE ME IN FRONT OF THEM

Paul took his hand off his radio.

"Yours, sir."

"Then clear the driveway. Adeline is coming with me. Nobody touches her or her bag."

The guard crossed the porch and ordered the car moved. Rafael approached us without acknowledging Matteo's stare.

"Ready?" he asked Nico.

"I have been for months. It took me a while to notice."

Matteo caught his son's arm. Nico looked at his hand until he removed it.

"If you leave now, don't expect me to fix the consequences."

"That's why I called someone else."

Rafael made room. I followed Nico down the ramp, still expecting someone to grab the collar of my coat. I didn't begin breathing properly until the vehicle doors closed and we left the house behind.

Nico stayed quiet until the gate disappeared in the rearview mirror.

Then he turned to me.

"Did you forget anything?"

I looked down at the purse clutched in my lap.

"A mug."

"Was it a good one?"

"The handle was cracked."

He nodded solemnly.

"We'll try to live with the loss."

I laughed. A sob came with it before I could stop it. I covered my mouth, furious with myself.

Nico didn't tell me to calm down. He took a bottle of water from the compartment beside him and handed it over.

"Drink something. Rafael's checking that everything is all right at your neighbor's. Discreetly. No one's going to frighten them."

"I didn't mean to cry."

"You held out longer than I would have."

The medical assessment took the rest of the night. Mercer explained each step directly to Nico, involving me when he needed information. His shoulder hadn't sustained the serious injury I'd feared, but the initial tests and medication review raised enough concerns to require close follow-up.

The samples and records were submitted for analysis through the appropriate channels. I handed over what I'd collected and kept copies of my notes. For the first time in days, I didn't need to hide documents among my clothes.

We reached the apartment as the sky began to lighten. Rafael checked the rooms and showed me a guest bedroom with its own bathroom. Nico had ordered modifications to the apartment months earlier, when he'd still expected to return within weeks.

In the kitchen, the coffee had expired.

"The decor is lovely," I said. "The pantry is trying to kill us."

"Please don't put that allegation in your report, too."

Rafael left to arrange food and security. I called June. She was annoyed about the hour until I explained that I needed to pick Wes up later and that there had been a change at work.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

Across the room, Nico was trying to open a drawer with a loose handle, furious at an obstacle too small to deserve that much anger.

"I'm somewhere better. I'll tell you later."

I left my suitcase in the bedroom and returned to find him by the window. Chicago was waking beneath a gray sky.

"You don't have to keep standing," he said.

I sat on the end of the sofa.

For a long time, all we heard was the heating.

"I thought it was the injury," he said eventually. "The sleepiness. The difficulty thinking. Sometimes I read the same contract four times and couldn't remember the first page."

I waited.

"My father said I had to accept my limitations. I wanted so badly to prove him wrong that I hid it when I got worse. I made it easier for them."

"You didn't help anyone do this to you."

He pushed a hand through his hair.

"I don't know what was mine and what they did to me. That's the