He puts his hand on my arm. “It’s going to be okay, Kallie.” I look up and smile at him. “I promise that nothing will happen to you.”

I’m about to thank him for being kind. “Grady, you think you can join us in a meeting?” Jacob says from the doorway, and I look over at him. He stands there, and I want him to look horrible, but he doesn’t.

“I was waiting for Kallie,” Grady says. “We’re coming now.”

We walk back into the office, and I ignore the leers coming from Jacob. I also ignore looking at anything but my feet. I don’t know what is discussed. I can’t even tell you anything. The only thing I know is that the longer I stay in this room, the more I feel my skin crawling. “Let’s get out of here.” I hear Casey, and I’m the first one to turn and walk out of the room but not before I spot one more photograph.

It looks like it was taken right when his son was born. He has tears in his eyes as he holds the little pink baby in his arms swaddled in a white cover with his father beside him. I walk out of the room, and it’s almost as if something is choking me. “I can’t breathe.” I look over at Olivia, who looks frantic. “I just can’t,” I say, trying to catch my breath, but nothing is helping.

I count to ten and not even that helps. I stop halfway to the door, and I have to bend over. “What’s happening?” Grady asks.

“She’s having a panic attack,” Olivia hisses and comes over to me. “Just take in small breaths,” she says, rubbing my back, but I’m struggling even with that. My heart just races even more, and my hands start to tingle, which only means I’m going to go down soon.

“Chair,” I say between trying to get my heart to settle. I’m suddenly lifted in the air, and I think it’s Casey, but it’s not.

“Get a cold rag!” Jacob shouts, and I want to push away from him when he leads me to a chair in a common room. He sits me down and squats down in front of me. “You need breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.”

“I think she knows how to breathe,” Casey hisses.