Yes, she thought. Issie would help her in a heartbeat. So would Martha. But Martha should’ve been off-shift before dinner today. Catie had apologized for that and said it was okay if she wanted to clock out. At fourteen, it was no longer illegal for Catie to be left alone at home.

Scowling at the very idea, Martha had kissed her on the cheek and said, “Not on my watch, hon. You’re a child, not an adult. And Jacqueline pays me triple when I work overtime, so I’m doing just fine.”

Catie hadn’t argued, though she knew full well that Martha had been planning to have dinner with her daughter’s family. As for Catie’s big sister… Catie didn’t want Ísa to know how bad Clive had begun to act. She was scared her sister would try for custody out of worry for Catie. But though Catie loved Issie more than anyone else in the whole world, she couldn’t leave her dad.

Clive would be devastated by her defection. He wouldn’t eat properly, wouldn’t sleep, wouldn’t make any good choices at all. Because though he was a bad father, he loved Catie in his own mixed-up way.

“No,” she said to the nurse who’d asked if anyone could help her. “My dad’s usually the one who’d handle things.” That was a full-on lie. Clive was the least responsible person she knew; the only reason their bills got paid was that Issie had set them up as direct automatic payments—it hadn’t always been that way, but then Clive had taken off with the bill money one time and the electricity company had almost cut them off. The money came from the dividend account Jacqueline had established for her children—an account Clive could never access.

Their mother was rich, but even rich women wouldn’t want to support their ex-husband. “I’m not supporting him,” the Dragon had said coolly the one time Catie brought up the topic. “I’m supporting my daughter. Leaving him penniless would affect you, and for all his faults, he’s a loving father.”

Loving but unreliable. Yet Jacqueline had given him custody of Catie. Which made Catie think that a big part of the reason Jacqueline didn’t mind footing the bills was because she saw it as a fair trade for not having to raise a child.

Tonight the nice nurse confirmed that Clive hadn’t been brought into the hospital, and after thanking her, Catie continued to ring around. She’d called all the hospitals she could find in the phone book by the time she hung up.

Tomorrow she’d ring the police and ask if he’d been arrested.