He looked at his wife, understanding that her words were a warning. Emma’s face betrayed no emotion. She was cool and calm, retreating behind the cold mask he’d been seeing more and more. No softness, no vulnerability.

He wanted to trust her. He always had. He’d trusted her empathy and her compassion, her desire to help others. He’d trusted what a wonderful, devoted mother and wife she was. He just couldn’t reconcile those parts of her with what she’d done.

The ends justify the means.

But what if they never reached the end?

Emma had done something wrong. But could he really turn her in to Hamilton and Greene when she’d done it for the right reason? Could he risk Josh getting even sicker because they couldn’t pay for his treatments, watch her get arrested, ruin her career, his career, their marriage, their family?

He backed away from her.

“Nate?” Emma drew an X across her chest and pointed at him. We’re in this together, she was saying. Tell me you still love me.

She needed reassurance. She needed him on her side.

Nate opened his mouth to reply, to say something, but he realized he couldn’t. There were no words left to say.

NATE DROVE too fast away from the hospital, the familiar mantra ricocheting like golf balls through his head:

You’re a bad person.

You’re cowardly. Weak.

Nobody can trust you.

Maybe if he hadn’t been so focused on Ben. Or Julia. Or on thinking his wife was having an affair. Maybe he would have seen it: her desperation to save Josh. Maybe he could’ve stopped it. But he’d missed it, and now he had no idea what to do.

No matter what, he’d lose something: his wife or his integrity.

Nate raced up the road toward the location Kia had texted him. He turned right to cross the bridge and was greeted by flashing lights as he parked next to the hiking path that led to the bottom of the waterfall.

He followed the path along a series of sharp switchbacks. The clouds were rushing like freighters through the sky. It was colder here, the air saturated with moisture from the waterfall’s spray. Small pellets of freezing water dashed against his head. The light quickly turned gray as the woods closed around him.

Nate had always loved the woods. When he’d lived in Seattle, surrounded by so much pavement and tall glass buildings, he’d missed the cool, peaceful beauty of the forest, the sharp call of crickets and the gentle murmur of the leaves rustling in the wind. Now, of course, everything was dying, the plants saturated, the ground muddy. But the evergreens still kept their glossy coats, even in the deepest depths of winter, a reminder that life continued around us, even in the darkest season.