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Back We're All in This Together Save as PDF
Chapters (46)
  1. Cover
  2. Other Titles
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Friday
  7. ONE
  8. TWO
  9. THREE
  10. FOUR
  11. Saturday
  12. FIVE
  13. SIX
  14. SEVEN
  15. EIGHT
  16. NINE
  17. TEN
  18. Sunday
  19. ELEVEN
  20. TWELVE
  21. THIRTEEN
  22. FOURTEEN
  23. FIFTEEN
  24. SIXTEEN
  25. SEVENTEEN
  26. EIGHTEEN
  27. NINETEEN
  28. TWENTY
  29. TWENTY-ONE
  30. TWENTY-TWO
  31. TWENTY-THREE
  32. TWENTY-FOUR
  33. TWENTY-FIVE
  34. Monday
  35. TWENTY-SIX
  36. TWENTY-SEVEN
  37. TWENTY-EIGHT
  38. TWENTY-NINE
  39. THIRTY
  40. THIRTY-ONE
  41. THIRTY-TWO
  42. THIRTY-THREE
  43. THIRTY-FOUR
  44. THIRTY-FIVE
  45. EPILOGUE
  46. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Katriina pulls her legs up and wraps her arms around them. As her pants ride up over her ankles, Walter can see a trickle of blood dripping from a cut on her leg. Oh, Katriina, he thinks. Why do you do this to yourself? Shawn has moved over by the railing, gazing out over the lake, and so Walter pulls open the console beneath the dash and rummages through a first aid kit, searching for a bandage. He tucks one into his palm and passes it covertly to Katriina. She looks at him, surprised. He motions to her leg, and her face turns red. She mouths Thank you as she quietly removes the wrapper and covers the wound.

Shawn still hasn’t said a word. Looking at the two of them, the pain on their faces, Walter suddenly wishes he hadn’t said anything. He supposes somewhere deep down, he thought they already knew. But they were not prepared for this. And they are dealing with so much already, and not just in the past few days, with losing the baby and everything to do with Kate. For the first time, Walter can see how much they’ve been struggling, and for how long. He wants to tell them that they can make it through, that the pain will go away, that life will get easier. But he knows it wouldn’t matter. These are things that you have to discover for yourself.

“So what does that mean?” Katriina asks. “For the future?” She is speaking to Walter, but her eyes are on Shawn’s back as he hunches over the railing.

“It means that, eventually, she is going to forget everything,” Walter says. He turns the wheel eastward, towards Isle Royale. “Including how to keep herself alive.”

When Shawn finally speaks, his voice is hoarse. “Is that why she’s been doing…what she’s been doing?”

“No. It’s actually the opposite. It’s like…” Walter struggles to find the words, clenching and unclenching his hands on the wheel. “It’s like she’s scared of losing a part of herself. But it’s a part of herself she doesn’t understand anymore, so she’s holding on all wrong.” It’s only as he says it out loud that he realizes this is what has been happening. “Don’t tell your sisters yet, okay?”

Shawn nods.

In the distance, Walter can see a fleet of Coast Guard boats and a helicopter converging on an island. It’s strange, he thinks. This part of herself that Kate is scared of losing, the part he always found hard to love, is now the one true part of her that remains. And as terrified as he is, as long as she is stealing boats and going over waterfalls, there is still a chance he hasn’t lost her yet.

THIRTY-FOUR