Keen, I think. And way, way out of his depth. My sister’s more guarded than that. The Alex I know would never give anything away to anyone until she’s sure of them. She’s created a simplified version of herself for Chase, and she’s lived it for the whole time she’s been here with him.

“We’re happy in Moses River,” he says, as if he can hear the inside of my head.

“Okay.”

“Are you? Are you happy?”

What the hell kind of question is that? When I don’t answer right away, he turns back to the television. We say nothing as the Rollerblade show cuts to commercial, and he gets up and goes to the fridge for a drink. He doesn’t offer me one, and I stay tensely on the couch.

I don’t know if I can do this. It’s not just that Alex’s strict parameters are closing in on me. It’s not that I’m impetuous, that I can’t keep secrets. The real problem I have—the very real fear—is everything I left behind me in Pittsburgh. And everything I brought with me here. I was only trying to choose wisely, do the right thing, but I failed again. Apparently it’s my specialty. All I can do now is hope that I’ve covered my tracks, that Eli will never find me. If he finds Chase’s front door and knocks on it, it’ll be like opening the door to a flash flood.

I place a hand on my abdomen. I will do everything to keep this baby safe. Alex has to know that. My story’s not as simple as she’s made hers out to be, but I’m not on drugs and haven’t been for a long time. If I’m a thief, I only took what was owed to me, nothing more. I didn’t even take it for me but for this baby. I had nothing. I did what I felt was the smart thing, but it always goes this way: Do something good and the universe twists it, debases it, turns it into something despicable. And by then it’s too late to go back. It happened in Pittsburgh, and it happened in Horizon. Even now, the town of my childhood is right here, nipping at my heels. Alex might feel she can outrun her past by refusing to talk about it, but mine’s not so easily diverted. I can’t escape the feeling that it’s coming to get me.

ALEX