So I became careful in a way I had never had to be.

Every time Dr.

Wallace came and went, I watched, and afterward I tended Raymond myself, following only the ordinary, honest routines of care that I knew to be safe.

I began keeping written notes, private ones, hidden away, recording the exact times of every visit, the names of everything I saw administered, the smallest shifts in his breathing and his color and his responsiveness.

And when I could do it safely, I took photographs of the suspicious, unlabeled boxes, so that there would be a record that did not depend on anyone believing the word of a maid.