One saved number, one thumb’s-reach away, a call I could place blind, from inside a pocket, without looking.

I told myself I was being paranoid.

I lay there listening to Julian’s uneven breathing and the old house ticking and my own heart, and I hoped I was being paranoid, and I kept my hand near my pocket anyway.

It is the only thing about that whole night I got exactly right, and I have thought since that it was the ledger that did it — all those months of small swallowed instincts, finally, when it counted, refusing to be swallowed one more time.

Chapter 13 — She’s Awake

We waited until the afternoon of her appointment, until we heard her car go down the drive, and then we moved fast.