“Yeah.” There was something wrong with the skin on her stomach and abdomen. It was hard and lumpy in places. She laid on her back with her eyes closed. There was now enough light in the room to see what was the matter in that area, but he did not wish to invade her privacy by lifting up her shirt.

“That word—dumped,” she said dreamily. “I hate that word but it is so apt. You feel like you’ve been dropped, but you never reach the ground. You just keep falling and falling. You feel you’ll never stop.” She added softly, “I know you know how that feels.”

“How do you know that?”

“I see it when you talk about Amy. She hurt you bad. She dumped you, and no matter how hard you try to pretend she loves you, you can never forget that.”

He was shocked. “You see all that?”

“Yes. I have thought about it a lot. I have a similar situation with Tony. It’s not exactly the same—he’s still fucking that cunt—but I wonder, maybe he’ll want to come back to me. Then I say to myself, I can’t take him back. He betrayed me. I could never trust him again because he might betray me again. I had so much pain. How could I face it again? But two minutes later I think the opposite. How much I love him. How much I miss him. I think that he’s basically a good person. That I have to give us both another chance.”

“Maybe you will have that second chance.”

She opened her sleepy eyes. “But what is true of us is not necessarily true of you two. Maybe Amy is not a good person. Maybe she will betray you again no matter what she promises. Have you thought of that?”

Her question cut to his core. She was the sick one and yet he was the one who suddenly felt weak. A door opened with her question. He wanted desperately to talk to her about what he had gone through. Perhaps if there had been someone there to begin with—to listen to him—it would never have gone this far.

Then again, he would never have known about Jimmy.

He missed his son right then so much.

They would take him away if they caught him.

“I have thought of that,” he said.

“Please don’t trust her,” she blurted out.

“What? Why?”

“She’s dangerous.”

“Who?”

“Amy.”

“Kathy. You haven’t even met her.”