“Hello there, son,” I said as I approached, my hands out. Of course, bullets couldn’t touch me. But I was going for Trustworthy.

“Who the fuck are you?” Jake yelled. He was tall and pale, sweating in his black hoodie. He still looked like a kid. Not in the way his young hostages did—the ABCs way, the I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I? way—but he held his gun sideways like in the movies and wasn’t much older than Sean.

“You prayed, didn’t you? You asked for help? Well, here I am.”

I kept my hands out and did a slow spin.

“That’s impossible,” he said, but his voice wavered.

“How else do you think I got in here? Got past the police? Who are gathering, by the way.”

I closed my eyes and felt through the wall into the white-tiled bathroom. I could see them clinging to one another in the old claw-foot bathtub, the cloudy-looking shower curtain pulled across them. The room smelled like urine, and I could see the boy’s pants were wet.

“Fuck, fuck this—fuck!” Jake yelled, and he shoved the muzzle of his gun deep into the fleshy underside of his jaw, pale like the soft part of a turtle. If he offed himself before I got to him, we would lose the whole deal.

“Jake,” I said, taking another step. “You don’t have to do that. I can fix this for you. That’s why I’m here.”

Jake slammed his fist into the wall. I could feel Rebecca’s pulse surge through the door as if I held her neon heart in my fist.

“If she hadn’t been such a fucking cunt—”

“Rebecca,” I said. “Your girlfriend. You were about to celebrate one year together.”

“How did you know that?” Jake snapped, pointing his gun at me. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. We didn’t have time for this.

“I told you—I am here to help you. I know everything, Jake.”

“So you know she fucking dumped me when I said I wanted to marry her? When I said the realest thing I’ve ever said to anyone, when I tore my goddamn heart out for her—she fucking dumped me, because she wants to ‘work it out’ with her rich ex. To be more stable for the kids, she said. Fuck that. She’s nothing but a gold-digging whore.”

From behind the bathroom door, a whimper pierced the silence.

“I know, Jake. But you didn’t want it to go like this, did you?” I took another step toward him. “Let me fix it.”

“Fix it how?” he asked, studying me.

“I can undo all of it. I can rewind time, Jake. And then I can make Rebecca love you, marry you, whatever you want.”

“That’s impossible. You’re a fucking cop.”