“Nothing important,” he says, in the same relentlessly cheerful tone. “I just wanted to ask you something: Did you think we wouldn’t find out?”

She hesitates, too long. “I don’t know what — ”

He shushes her. “It’s all right, Hailey, it’s all right. It’s going to be fine. But I admit, I am a little surprised. I didn’t think you’d go crying to them now.”

She takes a breath. Tries to laugh. “Them? Who? I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Of course you do. Like I said. Don’t worry. It’s all going to work out. Everything is going according to plan.”

“Look, I have kept my mouth shut. I’ve done my part — ”

“You’re right. You did. And now it’s over.”

Hailey’s mouth goes very dry. She knows she’s caught. She thought she was clever and careful, and had worked around the restrictions so they wouldn’t know. But clearly she was wrong. So very, very wrong.

There’s only one thing she can do. She knows she is finished. She begs for the life of her daughter.

“Please,” she says. “Please, leave Regan alone. She has nothing to do with this — ”

“Well, I wish we could. But you brought her into it. I’m sorry.”

He really does sound like he’s sorry. It doesn’t matter. Hailey has already thrown down the phone and is running to get her daughter.

There is no one she can call for help. She already knows this.

She couldn’t reveal anything about the Followers’ plan because the mark would not let her. She didn’t realize it at the time. She only thought it was a formality, the little tattoo they put on her shoulder. Like the Greek letters she got on her ankle back in college, along with her sorority sisters.

She didn’t realize that the little circle and slash would give them a window into her. The rules said she could not tell anyone about the group. She was not allowed. She thought it was a little stupid. Who was going to know?

So it almost slipped out, after a couple of glasses of wine, when she was talking to her girlfriend Ashley. She almost told her about the Followers.

And found she couldn’t.

It was as if her tongue was seized by some force outside herself. She choked. She tried to say the word again and her throat seized up. Ashley pounded her on the back and asked people in the bar if they knew the Heimlich. But as soon as Hailey stopped trying to say the name, the spasm passed.

She learned she couldn’t use their name. She couldn’t write about the group in her own journal. Her hand went limp. Dead.