Cab got out of bed and headed into the living room in his briefs. He thought about pouring himself a drink, but he already had a headache from the wine in Lake Wales. He watched wind and rain flooding through the halo of lights far below him. In the other high-rises, he could see a handful of apartments where the owners were awake, like him.

It was easier to think about work. About the puzzle. He knew what he had to do in the morning. He needed to talk to Caprice about Birch and Diane and the violence between them. He needed to see Diane, too.

He needed to hear about their child from her lips.

Cab turned in surprise as the doorbell chime rang through the condo. He noticed the clock and assumed it was Tarla. This was the guest apartment; Tarla lived in her own place next door. He really didn’t want to talk to his mother again. They’d shared enough anger and secrets for one night. Even so, he went to the door and peered through the spyhole. It wasn’t Tarla.

He opened the door.

Lala, her face wet from the rain and wet from crying, came through the door, closed it softly, and put her arms around him. She didn’t say a word. She knew the truth, and her own heart was breaking. That was when he finally cried, too. He didn’t sob; he didn’t have the strength. Instead, tears welled in his eyes and spilled onto his cheeks in a slow trickle. She held him tightly, and he put his arms around her, too, and they stayed like that in a kind of bubble.

When she pulled away, she put her hands on his cheeks, which were damp.

‘I’m so sorry.’

‘How did you …?’ he asked, but there was only one answer. A very surprising answer.

‘Tarla called me,’ Lala said. ‘She told me you were here. She told me – what you found out.’

Tarla. Just when he thought he couldn’t stand his mother for one more day, she went and reminded him that she loved him.

‘Is it possible that she really likes you?’ Cab asked.

‘It’s possible that she knows you needed someone. Even me.’

He took her hand. It had been a long time since they’d held hands. Her grip was strong. She wanted him to feel her. It was a reminder to him that his attraction to Caprice was nothing but physical. Lala was different. Lala was more. That was what made her so attractive and so terrifying to him. That was why their relationship was in jeopardy. It could be deep, or it could be nothing at all, but it couldn’t be something casual.

He didn’t know what he wanted, and she knew it, but she didn’t expect him to choose now.

‘What did she tell you?’ he asked.