The breeze was picking up, bowing the few tree branches that still held their leaves as it passed.

Apart from the noseless man, we had the Matchmaker and his crew in custody. However, though we’d stopped them for the time being, I wasn’t naive enough to think that the live feeds of suicides were over.

Our society has turned a corner, and there will be no going back. I hated to even think about it, but based on the statistics, somewhere in our country this week, some troubled, lonely person would be positioning her camera and turning it on before placing a razor blade against her wrist or emptying a bottle of pills into her hand.

Another live-streamed suicide—a phrase that was heartbreakingly tragic in its irony.

Once a week.

Every week.

And the number continues to grow every year.

As Calvin had said to me yesterday, “It is our world. I hasten not to judge it for I am a part of it.”

And so am I.

So are we all.

The rain became more steady and, in the escalating wind, it began to slant down at us in thin angles, slashing more than falling, the drops masquerading as wicked little liquid knives. A roll of unseasonable thunder sounded like laughter—not the light laughter of children, but the chortling of a man as he watches you, slit-eyed and hungry for what the night might bring.

“What are you thinking?” Christie asked me, her voice soft and nearly overwhelmed by the sound of the rain battering against the umbrella.

“That I’m fighting a losing battle.”

After a few more steps, she said, “Inside of you or outside of you?”

“You do know me pretty well, don’t you?”

Rather than pursue that, she changed the subject, which was fine by me. “It means a lot to Tessa that you’re teaching her to drive.”

“Of course.”

“I want you to look at her as if she were your own daughter—I mean, as much as you can. After all, I don’t know if we’ll ever have kids of our own.”

That came out of nowhere.

“We don’t need to decide anything like that now, Christie. We’ve only been married a few months.”

“I know. I’m just saying.”

“Okay.”

Kids. Wow. Yes, the subject had come up before, but I’d always deflected it, saying I was open to the idea but only when the time was right. The thought of bringing a child into this world was still a daunting one to me.

She went on. “I guess what I’m saying is, if anything ever happened to me, you’d be there for her?”

“Nothing’s going to happen to you.”

“I know. But if it did.”

“I’d be here for her. Yes. Always.”

She was silent.

“Are you alright?”