Seth took a ragged breath and concentrated on Ethan’s face. The eyes were clear and patient, the mouth firm and serious. Ethan knew, was all he could think. Ethan knew what it was like. He knew about the rooms, the smells, the fat hands in the dark.

‘‘She wants you to pay her.’’ Part of him wanted to beg them to do it. To pay her whatever she wanted. He would swear in blood that he would do anything they asked of him for the rest of his life to honor the debt.

But he couldn’t. Not with Ethan watching him, and waiting. And knowing.

‘‘If you do, she’ll just come back for more. She’ll keep coming back.’’ Seth rubbed the back of a sweaty hand over his mouth. ‘‘As long as she knows where I am she’ll keep coming back. I have to go someplace else, someplace where she can’t find me.’’

‘‘You’re not going anywhere.’’ Ethan crouched so they were closer to eye level. ‘‘And she’s not going to get any more money. She’s not going to win.’’

Slowly, mechanically, Seth shook his head back and forth. ‘‘You don’t know her.’’

‘‘I know pieces of her. She’s smart enough to know we’re set on keeping you with us. That we love you enough to pay.’’ He saw the flash of emotion in Seth’s eyes before the boy lowered them. ‘‘And we would pay if that would end it, if that would ease things. But it won’t end or ease it. It’s like you said. She’d just come back.’’

‘‘What are you going to do?’’

‘‘It’s what we’re going to do now. All of us,’’ he said and waited for Seth’s gaze to settle on his face again. ‘‘We’ll go on as we’ve been going on, mostly. Phil will talk to the lawyer so we got that end covered.’’

‘‘You tell him I’m not going back with her,’’ Seth said furiously, shooting a desperate look at Phillip. ‘‘No matter what, I’m not going back.’’

‘‘I’ll tell him.’’

‘‘Anna’s going to write her a letter,’’ Ethan continued.

‘‘What kind of letter?’’

‘‘A smart one,’’ Ethan said with the hint of a smile. ‘‘With all those fifty-dollar words and that officialsounding stuff. She’ll be doing it as your caseworker, to let Gloria know we’ve got the system and the law behind us. It might give her pause to think.’’

‘‘She hates social workers,’’ Seth put in.

‘‘Good.’’ For the first time in more than an hour, Anna smiled and meant it. ‘‘People who hate something areusually afraid of it, too.’’

‘‘One thing that would help, Seth, if you can do it—’’

He turned back to Ethan. ‘‘What do I have to do?’’

‘‘If you could talk to Anna, tell her how things were before—as close to exact as you can manage.’’