After an hour spent reading everything recent, she felt mildly encouraged. Either Kouretas hadn’t discovered her background, or he hadn’t reported it yet. Was he waiting to get her picture for an entire coup de grâce? So his magazine could do a big two-page exposé that ended with her accident and what her family believed was God’s way of attempting to reclaim their wayward daughter?

Setting her laptop aside, she wandered aimlessly into the kitchen and ate a banana. Then she let herself into the atrium, where she threw the ball for Kiki. She was trying to piece it all together in her mind, but nothing really made sense. Only a few people knew where she was, and she hated to doubt any of them.

Once she returned to the living room, she took out her phone and called Barbie, hoping a conversation with her friend might provide some answers.

“There you are!” Barbie’s voice was immediately filled with concern. “I’ve been so worried about you. Why haven’t you responded to any of my calls and texts? I’ve been going crazy over here. I don’t even know where you are, so I couldn’t drive over to check on you.”

Would she do that? Was she being sincere? “I’m sorry,” Tia said. “I just...checked out for a while. Needed some space.”

“Oh, honey! I don’t blame you. But I hope you’re not taking what happened too hard. You’re so beautiful. A few scars won’t change that.”

“I look significantly different,” she pointed out.

“Your heart is still the same. But...when you disappeared on me, I began to worry that... You’re not self-medicating or doing anything else that could potentially make things worse, are you?”

Tia wasn’t likely to go that way. Mennonites weren’t allowed to drink; she hadn’t even tasted alcohol until she moved to LA. Even after ten years, the most she ever had was a glass or two of wine. But Barbie had lost a friend to an overdose not long ago; Tia knew where that comment stemmed from. “Of course not. You know I barely drink.”

“That’s what I kept telling myself, but so much has changed for you, and—”

And she’d be tempted to end it all if she was Tia? That wasn’t encouraging, but she knew Barbie meant well. “I don’t have any more pain meds, so you don’t have to worry about that, either.”

“Do you need them?”

“No.”

“Good. So...how are you feeling?”

“Better.”

“I’m glad! But I hate that you’re spending the holidays alone. Why don’t you get someone else to house-sit for you so you can come stay with me?”

“I’m sure Mike would love me hanging out all the time, sleeping on your couch,” she said, but she knew she would never put herself in that position regardless.