“The steering committee was highly impressed with your final scores,” Daniel said.

He held out his right hand toward Eli.

Eli looked down at the manicured fingers floating in the empty space between them.

He didn’t raise his own hand to meet them.

Instead, Eli tilted his head and studied Daniel’s face with intense, clinical focus.

He let his eyes track across Daniel’s jawline, the exact shape of his nose, and the exact distance between his eyebrows.

Claire watched her son match the features perfectly to the state brochure photos he had obsessively studied online.