My head droops downward, and I see a thin trickle of blood rolling past the hem of my shorts, down my thigh, toward my knee. More follows, pooling onto the white of the bathroom floor by my foot.

“Jesus,” I hear Alex say, but blackness swirls deeper in front of me, and I surrender to it, falling onto Chase, finally finding a pit that blocks out all the sound.

ALEX

“Rest and simplicity,” the doctor says. “That’s what your sister needs. And the more of it the better.”

Simplicity is next to impossible, given the situation she’s in—that we’re now all in.

“Tell that to her, Doctor. Not to me,” I reply.

All the tests they run conclude the whole episode is stress-related. Ruth is kept overnight for observation. It was a light bleed, nothing more, nothing dire. I sit in a slippery chair by her bed while she sleeps. It’s exactly how I sat with Dad through all those last days and nights. Even the royal blue of the cushioning is the same. Ruth sleeps like she did as a child—effortlessly, soundlessly, so completely elsewhere in her slumber that it’s as if she’s switched dimensions. I leave for home at dawn before she wakes, and find Chase in the kitchen making coffee.

“I couldn’t sleep,” he says. “I know she’s your sister and everything, but Christ, Alex. I don’t think I’m okay with her coming back here. She brought drugs and stolen money into our home.”

I move straight toward him and hug him. “I know, I know. But, Chase, what you’re not getting is that she makes a lot of things up.”

He pulls back, his face young and trusting. “You’re saying she’s lying about that? Why would she do that?”

“To destabilize us. She creates chaos. She’s been like that since we were little kids. If there’s a button, she’ll push it. Don’t ask me why.”

“Huh,” he says. “You shouldn’t have shoved her.”

I keep my eyes low. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have done that. It’s just that she’s just so … frustrating sometimes.”

“You can’t go pushing a pregnant—”

“I said I get it. I regret it.”

He pulls me in against his chest. “So … okay. And you really think she’s making it up about the drugs and this Eli guy?”

I lean up and kiss him along the jawline. “I think Eli’s real, but I doubt he’s coming here. I’ll get the police to check on that, ask them to keep an eye out. Okay? Honestly, Chase, I don’t think there’s anything new to worry about. If there were really drugs, they’d be in the apartment.”

He’s quiet for a minute, then nods.