Hal was clearly torn. He wanted to stay with Jake. And Audrey. But I needed him to go see Cally. Now. And get answers. He didn’t understand why I couldn’t go do it myself. His brain was so full of Jake’s situation that he didn’t have enough space to comprehend that I’d been banned from the third floor.

“Something’s wrong with Cally,” I said. “She’s had some kind of operation.”

“Something’s wrong with Jake, too,” said Audrey.

“I wasn’t talking to you, Audrey,” I said.

“Ruth, come on, now,” said Hal, moving closer to Audrey as if I might attack her. “I need to stay with Jake.”

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll ask Raymond to do it.”

“Cally’s not gonna talk to him,” said Hal. “Why can’t you do it?”

“I told you. I’m not allowed on the third floor.”

“Holy cow, Ruth,” said Hal, as if all I did was make trouble.

“Excuse me, but I’ve been a bit stressed out,” I said.

Nodding toward the hallway, Hal ushered me out of the room. “Let’s go somewhere private,” he said. We walked past the hoodlums outside Jake’s room. They must have thought I’d be okay as long as Hal was watching me, because they headed for the elevators without a word.

“In here.” I pushed open the door to the stairwell. We scurried in and let the door close behind us. Hal turned to me and opened his arms; I moved inside the space he made, leaning my dried-teary face against his weary-solid chest, and he closed his long arms around me. This was our ritual for connection and comfort. This was how we reminded ourselves that we were on the same team. That we needed each other. For thirty seconds, we embraced, wordless on the cement landing in the hollow gray-and-white stairwell.

Hal pulled away. “Okay, what’s going on?”

“Cally’s here! Do you understand how crazy that is?”

“Yes, but what am I supposed to do about that?” Hal’s voice echoed in the empty stairwell.

“Go talk to her. Find out where our baby is.”

Hal made a face like he was thinking about it.

“Why not? What do you think we should do?” I said.

“Nothing right now,” said Hal.

I exhaled, exasperated. “I don’t understand you. I feel like I’ve been doing everything I can to get our daughter back. Unlike you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Hal rubbed his forehead as if he’d come down with a sudden headache.

“You know what it means. You haven’t been half as concerned as I have through this whole thing.”

“I wrote the agreement, didn’t I?”

“Oh, here we go again with the blasted contract.”

“And I paid the money?”

“We paid the money together. Why aren’t you more upset? It’s like you don’t want to find her.”