I feel weird about giving my parents any credit given how they disowned me. But she’s not wrong. I have my father’s eyes and the shape of my mother’s face, nose, and lips. They can’t deny that I’m their son. Though I’m not going to give them credit on my build. It was all my hard work that got me to where I am today.

“Laverne, this is my friend Orion.”

“Beautiful name,” Laverne says as she stares at his hair. “And beautiful curls. Why are you hiding them under that hat?”

“It belonged to my dad,” Orion says.

“Are you a model too? I can easily find you work in a shampoo commercial.”

Orion shakes his head. “Not my thing, but thanks.” He squeezes my shoulder. “But this guy is ready to crush his photo shoot.”

Laverne looks puzzled. “Didn’t you get my voicemail?”

Am I about to find out I got fired? On my End Day?

“I lost my phone last night.”

“Ah. I hate to break it to you, but the photo shoot has to be postponed.”

“For how long? A few hours?”

“A bit longer. We need to find a new photographer.”

“What happened to William?”

Laverne takes a deep breath. “William was murdered last night in Times Square.”

I fall back into my seat, and Orion’s hand flies to his mouth. I feel transported back to Times Square. The gunshots . . . I never in a million years in a city of millions would’ve thought I’d know the person who died. Even peripherally.

I wonder if he was registered for Death-Cast.

“That’s horrible,” Orion says, turning to me, just like when we were at the hospital. “We were actually in Times Square last night.”

Laverne’s eyes widen. “Wow. Thankfully you’re both okay.”

Orion doesn’t say anything else. Just like at the hospital, he doesn’t tell my story for me.

“I’m only sort of okay. Death-Cast called me last night.”

The receptionist peeks up from the front counter, stunned.

Laverne laughs. “You’re going to be fine,” she says, waving off this big bomb I just dropped like it was only cigarette smoke. “You can’t possibly believe that those Death-Cast people can actually know when someone is going to die.”

“We do,” Orion says. “And they’ve been right already.”

“It hasn’t been a full day. There are many opportunities for their predictions to be proven wrong.”

“Valentino can’t risk waiting around for that,” Orion says. “So is there something we can do to get this photo shoot going on today?”

Laverne is no longer charmed by Orion. She turns to me. “If you truly believe that Death-Cast is right, then why are you even trying to do this photo shoot?”

“I’ve been working hard for a moment like this.”

“But you won’t be around to reap the rewards.”