“I’m not going to tell anyone, Ryan,” he said, the words coming out slow. “These letters I wrote to Jen, the things we shared and talked about . . . You see, that accident and the truth about it, the truth about you—well . . . I haven’t been able to tell anyone about it either. Ever. I can’t even tell Sam because her parents would flip. It’s a secret I’m keeping too. So that article came out in the paper, and it brought it all up for me again. You know, I was in that car too. So . . . when Jen and I were still dating back then . . . and because I felt freer with her, looser, I felt liberated to tell her things I couldn’t tell anyone else. Telling her . . . It was like when you meet a stranger in a bar or in an airport. I unburdened myself to her because she was separate from the rest of my life. I knew we weren’t going to get married, so I spilled my guts.”

The door to the Ground Floor remained closed, but I’d have sworn it had opened, letting in a cold wind. Some chill gripped me, creeped over every inch of my body. The feeling made me nauseated, and I struggled to say anything. But I finally managed to.

“Blake, no.”

“She knows. And I mentioned it in one of the letters. . . . I told her how much it meant to me that we could speak freely about everything, all the things that matter to me. So it’s in there. In writing. The truth about that night. The truth about who was driving. The truth about you.”

The cold feeling gradually turned warmer. It felt like a small fire was burning in my chest. Dead center.

“Blake.” My voice was low, bitter. I looked around but no one paid any attention to us. “She knows? And you put it in writing? Are you the biggest damn fool who has ever lived?”

“So you see,” he said, “it’s in your best interest to get those letters out of there. We both have a lot at stake. You’d be exposed and put in legal jeopardy for driving the car. My relationship with Sam and her family would be in jeopardy.”

Blake started fishing around in his pants pocket. He brought out a piece of paper folded into a tiny square. He handed it to me, and after a short pause, I took it from him but didn’t open it.