“He didn’t put her in a coma,” his mother said. “But he certainly didn’t stick around to take care of her.”

“What happened to her?” I asked.

“Only she knows. Anthony came home one day and found her like this. There’s a police report—that’s how I found out what happened. He got her to the hospital, but by the time I arrived he was gone. He vanished. He left her like this. They think she fell down the stairs.”

Tuck and I looked at each other.

“He had nothing to do with it,” his mother said. “He was at work. Neighbors saw him getting out of his car at the end of the day. And seconds later he was calling the ambulance. There wasn’t time for him to hurt her. He called the ambulance and he rode with her, and he waited for an hour, until they told him she wasn’t awake. Then he went home, packed a bag, and disappeared. He’s weak, you see. He couldn’t face it.”

The machines in the room made a kind of electric drone. I could see the white bed, the pale hair.

“You go back and tell him what you saw,” his mother said. “Tell him she’s not awake, but she’s alive. Tell him I’m taking care of her, and neither of us wants to see him ever again.”

I stood up and went to the doorway.

“She can hear everything we say,” the mother told me. “I don’t want you to scare her.”

I walked to the bed and stood over her. She had pale blond hair, and her face looked puffy and white. But other than two clear tubes snaking into her nose, there was nothing to indicate that she wasn’t just asleep. The light came in the window and made patches of gold on the white leaves of the lilies on the windowsill. I wanted to say something to her—I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve this. You’re safe now—but nothing seemed right.

“She’s a beauty,” his mother said. “Maybe you can’t tell now. But she is a beautiful girl.”

“I’m sure she is.”

She beckoned me ferociously into the hallway. “It’s best if you leave,” she said. “You don’t know about Emily? I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t he tell you?”

“We don’t know anything. We know he grew up here and that’s all—”

“He grew up on Long Island,” she said. “She’s the one who grew up here. I brought her here once she stabilized. I thought she’d rather be here in the town she knew.”

“You’re the only one taking care of her?”

“She doesn’t have anyone else,” she said, and then an afterthought, “and neither do I.”