I tried to hide my annoyance that he’d brought it up so quickly. Obviously, we’d talk about things, but I’d been hoping to enjoy a brief break from it all. I was never worried about the forum post. That was all Abbi. My concern was the phone calls, and it’d only grown larger since the call from this morning had updated on the log around noon. The number was unknown, just like the other one. But I didn’t want to bring it up and spoil the moment.

“I am,” I lied.

“You’ve got to trust the investigators to do their job,” Scott said as we walked down the sidewalk.

“Like you trusted them?” I said without thinking. His hand went limp in mine. “I wasn’t trying to be mean. Honestly. But how many times over the years have I listened to you say how they mishandled Kate’s case?”

He picked up speed while we walked. “This is a completely different situation. Before they focused on me as a suspect and ignored other important leads. Everyone has been on top of things since the beginning this time.” His voice had an edge. “Believe me, we’re not in any kind of danger. Dean never would’ve pulled all the security back if we were.”

“And the fact that she lied to me about being on the phone?”

His body tightened next to mine. “Please don’t be mad, Meredith, but, honestly, it’s her business if she wants to be on the phone.”

I jerked my hand out of his. “Are you kidding me right now?”

He raised his palms up. “I mean, we’re not her parents. She can talk to people.”

“And lie to me about it? That’s acceptable?”

“No, of course not, but we’ve just got to keep giving her the safe space to get through whatever process she has to go through.”

“Is Dean going to tell Camille and the rest of the team about the phone calls?”

“I’m not sure.”

“You didn’t ask?” He didn’t have to answer for me to know he hadn’t. “Why didn’t you make sure that he was going to?” His ability to bury his head in the sand over this was infuriating. If she was lying about being on the phone, then what other things was she lying about?