I’d been imagining him safely in a hotel room, maybe watching football like my folks, maybe chatting with the cop protecting him. But instead he’d been back in the station under the fluorescent lights, being treated like a suspect.

“What happened?” And why hadn’t Alondra given me a heads-up?

“The same as before. How about you? How are your folks?” His questions had the easy flow of normalcy and routine, but this wasn’t the time for either of those, much as I longed for them.

“Loving the time with Grace. Did you get the picture? I guess it went to your phone. Couldn’t they forward your messages?” My last question was sharper than I’d intended. I couldn’t help thinking about all the things I’d done that Michael didn’t know. I’d been post-stalking Aimee, thought I’d seen Lena, had told Rahmia, Elizabeth, and Alondra, had gone to the museum alone, and had been thrown out by security. If he’d been sharing secrets that big with someone else, even his best friend, it would gut me.

“I’m not really in a position to make demands. They were questioning me for another couple hours at the station.”

“Alondra—” Alondra knew what was happening with my husband. But she hadn’t even given me a clue. She’d just let them grill him like he was guilty. She was supposed to be protecting him; so were the police. What was wrong with them?

“Alondra was there. Apparently, Brady started talking, lying about me.”

We’d done everything right, told the police everything we knew, completely cooperated. They wouldn’t even know about Brady if it hadn’t been for Michael. Lies and secrets were poisoning everything. I couldn’t stop Brady from lying. I couldn’t make the police do their job. I couldn’t catch Lena myself. I couldn’t do a thing to save my family. “There’s no way the police would believe him—”

“I don’t know what they believe. They didn’t charge me with anything.” He lowered his voice. “But it’s not like I’m free to go, either. And they moved me to a different apartment.”

“Did Lena find you?”

“No, no.” He spoke quickly, but I didn’t believe him. “At least, they didn’t say so. I think they’re just covering all their bases.”

I should tell Michael everything, or at least that I’d seen Aimee. But then I’d have to tell him I had thought I’d seen Lena and I hadn’t stayed safely at home. The words caught, like when a hard candy gets stuck, not able to be coughed out, not able to be swallowed down.

Instead I said, “Someone left a jar of sourdough starter at my parents’ house. I gave it to the police.”