“She told you that?” She’s lying. She just doesn’t want to have them with you.

“Well”—he rubs his eye—“the doctors ran tests. You didn’t know that? I guess you wouldn’t if you left when she was young.”

“It’s so sad,” I say finally, pretending I believe it, which I don’t.

“No, we’re fine. Don’t feel bad. And don’t say anything: she won’t want to talk about it.”

I actually meant sad for us as sisters. We’re meant to have a sixth sense, to be force fields around each other. But Alex has pulled hers tight, using it solely to keep me out. It’s not only that I’m suspicious that she’s lied to him—it’s that I might have an inkling as to why. And I can’t say a word to Chase about that, because it’s part of the rules.

Meanwhile, Alex places no boundaries on her own prying. She’s still trying to find out more about Eli. Is he dark-haired and dirty like Hal was? Or did you at least upgrade? I don’t tell her anything. She’ll just judge me. That much hasn’t changed. When Eli and I moved into the house on Lennox Street with a few others we’d met from various halfway houses, I knew that everyone living there made their money dishonestly. They weren’t upstanding citizens; it wasn’t a model home. But there was honor among thieves, I thought, so I took the offer of a shared room, and I ignored the fact that there were drugs around. I ignored the temptation, even if Eli didn’t. Things weren’t easy, but we were getting by. They only fell apart entirely when he got that job in the college, started watching the college crowd. There was a market to be tapped there. He smelled young money.

I deflect as many of Alex’s questions as I can. I can’t tell her the real truth of it—how Eli set us all on a dangerous path, dragging us all down with him. I tried to stay out of Eli’s business, but he wouldn’t let me; he beat me. In the end, all I could do was run, and from there it was a one-way trip to Alex. Where else was I going to go pregnant and with a criminal record? At first, my secrecy was to protect her, but she needed me to give her something, a kernel of truth, so I did. But that’s all she’s getting. Every day my life in Pittsburgh moves further and further away from me. Done and dusted. At least that part of the story’s reliable. And Chase, Alex, and I, in spite of everything, we’re getting on okay.