Somewhere in the reading I stopped shaking and went very still and cold, and Javier put his hand flat on the table between us, not touching me, just there, the way you steady something you are afraid might fall.

The nausea rose in my throat.

“He did all this just to me?” “No,” Javier said, and hesitated.

“There are two other folders on the drive.

One labeled Alyssa.

One labeled Ines.

And each of them ends with the same word.” He didn’t want to say it.

I made him.