They don’t respond and continue to barrage me with questions. Finally, I’ve had enough.

I get up and say that I’m leaving.

I hold my breath as I walk out of the station, waiting for them to throw a pair of cuffs on me and arrest me but they don’t.

4

Olive

When I go back home…

The cops and the FBI have kept me for hours in their interrogation room, alternating between having me just sit there staring at the walls and telling one person after another that I would like to see an attorney.

Outside, I inhale the cold fresh air of the season’s first snowstorm and open my mouth for a snowflake to land on my tongue. When it does, I promise myself that I’m going to find out the truth about Nicholas.

I wrap my coat tighter around Solly to make sure he doesn’t catch a chill (can cats get colds? I have no idea) and walk purposely out into the parking lot and then toward the nearest diner.

Twenty-four hours later, I walk down the slushy street outside Logan International Airport looking for my Uber. The driver tries to make small talk but I am too tired to respond. He mentions that I am lucky to get in when I did because they are cancelling flights all along the East Coast, apparently the first big blizzard of the season is about to hit.

I pay his tip on my phone and slug my stuff upstairs. I don’t have much besides a small suitcase but it feels like I’m trying to walk two large duffel bags full of bricks all of the way to my apartment.

It doesn’t occur to me to knock until I see the surprised look on Sydney’s face. I have been gone for a long time. I did start a new life in California and she is definitely not expecting to see me here tonight.

“I’m really sorry,” I mumble into her ear. “I didn’t mean to interrupt anything, I just had to come home.”

After a long embrace, we pull away from each other and she asks how I’m doing.

The question is so loaded, I have no idea how to even begin answering it.

Instead, I take a few steps down the foyer and see that she is playing hostess. Her mother and James are seated around the dining room table with polite expressions on their faces.

I’m tempted to just say a brief hello, introduce them to Solly, and go hide in my room. But I don’t want to be rude so I take my cue from Sydney.