“Not it. She. You said she wasn’t your problem. My daughter, dying in her bed because I couldn’t afford her medicine, was not your problem.”

My stomach turns. Cam’s words hit me hard, and I think I might vomit. I tell myself it’s not true, that Sebastian is stretching the truth. Cam is a man who takes care of his mother. Who passes dollar bills out the window to the homeless people begging at stoplights. Who volunteers at soup kitchens and donates his extra food to the food bank. Not someone who would tell another father—a potential business partner—his sick and dying daughter wasn’t his problem.

With a victorious grin, Sebastian flips his cell around, holds it high in the air like a trophy. “Say it again so everybody hears. Louder, this time.” On either side of the fake fire alarm, twin ceiling fans cast eerie shadows on his mask and clothes, as menacing as any monster.

“I said she wasn’t my problem.”

“Right. Just like how what happens next to your wife and daughter isn’t mine.”

“Please, Sebastian.” Cam’s voice is pleading, thick with fear. “Just...let Jade and Beatrix go, and I will make sure your daughter gets her lungs, I swear to you. I’ll pay for them myself if I have to, and we won’t involve the police. You don’t have to go to jail for this. We can work this out. Please.”

Sebastian pulls the phone right up to his mouth and shouts, “Too late. Now get your ass home with my money or your kid dies and then your wife dies and you will sit there helpless knowing there’s nothing you could do about it. You won’t be able to stop the people you love from dying, and you’ll have to live the rest of your miserable life knowing their deaths are all your fault. Then you’ll finally understand what you did to me. You’ll feel the pain I felt.”

Beatrix’s face screws into a purple coil, and I scoot closer, wrapping a hand around her ankle.

“I feel your pain now,” Cam says, his voice low, calmer now. He’s holding it together, but just barely. “Just hold on. Don’t do anything you’ll regret. I’ll be there in eighteen minutes, and then I swear to you we’ll fix this. I want to fix this.”

Sebastian checks the time on his cell. “In fifteen they’ll all be dead.”

“Come on, Sebastian. I know you. You may hate me for what I did, but you’re not evil enough to kill innocent people. You’re smart, you’re caring and you’re a great father. No father deserves the kind of worries you’re carrying around, but you’re not that guy. I know you don’t want to do this.”