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  67. 3:46 a.m.

I told her I didn’t care how many hours I got in a day, just as long as I got to spend them with her.

I asked her to marry me.

She cried, said yes, and cried some more.

When we reached the car, my dad was in the front seat, and Lassie and Murdock were in the back. Murdock attacked me with slobbery kisses, and Lassie kept repeatedly asking me how many fingers he was holding up.

Ingrid and I broke the news of our engagement and everyone went crazy. We celebrated by going through a McDonald’s drive-through. I ordered a quarter-pounder with cheese, a large fry, a large Coke, and a chocolate milkshake. Lassie, my father, and Ingrid all ordered the same.

Murdock ordered eight Big Macs.

4:00 a.m. came not long after the feast, and while I was sleeping, my dad drove to the hospital. Over the next twenty-hours, I had surgery on my left hand to reattach several of the muscles and tendons in my thumb, then another surgery to put two pins in my pinky, where I broke it in two places.

The doctor said my hand wouldn’t be good as new, but in a couple months it would be good enough.

My second night in the hospital, my cell phone had rung at 3:10 a.m.

It was President Sullivan.

He said he was sorry it had taken him so long to get back to me, but that this whole thing with Russia was getting out of hand, and he couldn’t even think straight.

I decided against telling him the whole story: that his father had an affair with my mother, that Uncle Sidney, a man he’d known for thirty years, was more of a monster than anyone could have ever known. He had enough to worry about with that Putin guy.

Sullivan explained that Sidney Ewen was the one who had asked him to look into the murder of Jennifer Nubers, and that he had obliged him as it was a dying wish of the old man. He wasn’t exactly sure why Ewen wanted Ingrid to be the one who investigated the murder, but he figured she was as good as anyone and put in the call.

Sullivan said he didn’t hold Ewen in the highest esteem, as he had been the head of MK-Ultra for its despicable tenure, but that his father had held a certain respect for the man, so the President had always tried to be cordial to him.

I told him about Ingrid and my engagement and he promised he would attend the wedding.

As for Sidney Ewen, aka Benjamin Button, we dropped him off in front of a fire station on the way to the hospital.

My idea.