Donna came home, her hair on fire over the lack of an ambulance in the driveway, then all over again at the suggestion that she should please help him put Roy in his truck. They had to leave him for someone else to find.

She told him he was insane. That she didn’t even know who she was talking to anymore. How could he possibly think this was okay?

But he kept going. Twisting it to sound reasonable. To sound like the lesser of the wrong turns they might make in this.

He would wash and throw away the bottle Roy had taken from their bar. He would clean up everything. No one knew who Roy was. No one was looking for him. No one would know.

She wouldn’t have to do anything but help him—just a little—only to get Roy into the truck and then follow them in her car to bring Jonathan back home.

She cried. A sudden, strong rain of it.

But she couldn’t argue that she didn’t want the police, and inevitably the newspeople, back in their home and all over their street. Not after what Carly had already been through. We have to think of her. John pounded that point, Donna’s weak spot. Carly had to live in this town. It would be a terrible and utterly useless thing to make her life about this. To make their life about it. It’s not worth it, babe. It can’t be undone.

He told her Roy was a rotten person. That he’d even been responsible for a nice woman’s death back in the day. That’s what I didn’t tell you. The only thing. He was what the cameras were all about in the first place. I’m sorry. Please don’t tell Carly. Please, it will scare her. I’m sorry. It’s over now. If she would only help him, they could make this truly over.

And, most importantly, none of this was their fault. They hadn’t done anything wrong. Roy had done this to himself to punish John for not fixing his broken life years ago. Between this and the kid who’d attacked Carly, it wasn’t fair that she kept having to take on the mistakes of other people. And it would be another mistake not to let someone else find Roy.

It was pointless pain.

And if somehow I’m wrong, it’s on me. I swear it. I will protect you. I will protect Carly. I love you. I’m sorry. Help us, Donna. Help us get through this together.

She did. “But I don’t know what we have after this, John. After all of this. I don’t know what to think. I feel like I don’t even know you. I don’t know what we are anymore.”