Chapter 16: Say It Aloud

I asked for him myself.

The lawyer set it up in a small conference room on the fourth floor of the hospital.

He put a recorder on the table and left the door open.

My father waited in the corridor. Hester waited with him.

Kellan came in at two o'clock and stayed on his feet until I told him he could sit.

He had not shaved. The yellow bruise on his nose had faded to a stain.

"You asked to see me," he said.

"I'm going to ask you one question," I said. "You answer it in words. Not with your face, and not with an apology."

"All right."

"Did you know?"

He did not pretend to misunderstand.

He looked at the recorder, then at the lawyer, and then at his own hands on the table.

"Yes," he said.

My heart did what it does now, and the nurse's alarm chirped on my wrist.

"Say all of it," I said.

"The second game was the north road. You were out in the sleet, three hours, in a thin coat."

"I drove out after dark to bring you home at the last minute, so you'd be grateful."

"I remember," I said. "You sat in the car and watched me walk."

"I sat in the car," he said. "You were shaking so hard you couldn't hold your phone."

"You said to yourself, out loud, keep going."

He swallowed.

"I'd heard that sentence once before. In my fever. A girl's voice on the floor next to my bed, saying keep going, he's still breathing."

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