“Sort of.” Leah’s throat tightened. “He didn’t want me to do this.”

“Why not?”

“He thought it was too dangerous. He said that the Forum didn’t commit crimes.”

“Doxxing is a crime, Leah.” Kate’s tone was mild as she rose to her feet.

“But it had a higher purpose.” Or so she had thought. God, she was so confused right now.

“We’ll give Matt a call and see what he can do to help.”

Help. How ironic that the man whom she had regretted walking away from now was her only hope.

She felt as if her and Matt’s past and future were shaped the same as the symbol of infinity. The lazy eight looped back to itself, the paths interconnecting at the critical midpoint, the journey infinite and endless. It was as if she and Matt were on the same lazy eight of existence, but had taken opposing loops. And now their paths had once again connected. Either he would put her back on the right track, or she would remain on the one that would send her to prison, her career in ruins, her life destroyed.

“Could you please tell him I’m sorry?” she whispered.

“Of course.” And then her lawyer left.

She lay alone in the bed, the room growing dimmer as the light slowly faded into a dark night, the intermittent beeping of the machines her only company.

Chapter 37

Chapter 37

9:28 p.m.

So this was the city where Leah lived.

Matt wished he had a little more time to look around Halifax, but instead he and Joey walked as fast as possible from the library to Matt’s downtown hotel. The sidewalks teemed with people dressed in summer dresses, t-shirts, sandals, and shorts. From what Leah had told him about her hometown, Haligonians knew well enough never to waste a beautiful summer’s evening. The winter was always too raw a memory. And judging from the bustling outdoor patios, not a single minute of summer weather was being missed.

Music drifted up from the Jazz Festival along the waterfront. Matt thought about how much fun it would have been to be with Leah, listening to smooth jazz, and having a brew. Instead, he led her little brother to the hotel in which they would complete their doxx of Harry Owen.

He knew he could easily isolate each step that had taken them to this result, but right now, it seemed like he was a hero in a movie where he had been teleported to the future and sees what had happened to his life, and then is sent back to his present to avoid making a huge, life-ruining error.