“Yes,” she said. “His name was Steven. He was a mechanical engineering major at Drexel. Had a co-op job at Boeing and a 3.0 GPA. At first, he seemed to be a good influence. Then, about four months ago, he started calling Phillip at all hours of the night, and the two of them would go out to these parties. I didn’t really care, because I figured they wanted to do the college-boy thing, so I let Phillip do Phillip, as long as he came back to me.”

She chuckled at her own naïveté. “That didn’t last too long. I was never the type who could put up with other people’s mess, so I left him alone. I didn’t argue. I didn’t get in his face. I just backed away. That was before I found out I was pregnant.”

Desiree’s voice caught in her throat, and she covered her eyes in an attempt to stem the flow of tears.

“I tried for a month to forget about him,” she said in a pain-choked whisper. “I figured I would raise the baby on my own, but after I thought about it, I knew I was just being silly. I was thirteen weeks when I decided I had to tell him. When I finally made the call a month ago, I thought we should meet in a place we both liked, so I asked him to meet me at Community College, in that same little space where we took that picture. Everything was fine until I saw him.”

She paused as the memory stifled her words and stabbed at her heart, but she swallowed hard and went on.

“His face was all white and sweaty,” she said sadly. “His eyes were droopy and his lips were dry. He was wearing this crazy black outfit.”

“What did he say when you told him about the baby?” Mann asked.

She lowered her head in shame. “I, um, I didn’t tell him. I couldn’t, because I knew he was on drugs the minute I looked at him.”

“So what did you say?”

“I asked him where he’d been and why he looked that way. He was quiet for a few minutes. Then he started rambling about wars and legions of angels. I asked him what he meant by legions, and he just smiled and said he was never coming back, because the archangel had an assignment for him that he couldn’t tell me about. I never saw him again after that.”

Desiree wiped her eyes and curled her feet beneath her in the chair. Touching the life inside her belly, she swayed side to side with pain etched on her face.

“I just have one more question,” Mann said quietly. “Was his friend Steven supposed to be the archangel?”