Chapter 11: Lantern

He stood in the middle of the studio and did not say anything for a long time.

The master of "Midnight Ledger" glowed on the screen, paused at the second chorus.

When he finally spoke, his voice was very quiet.

"You let me thank you for years."

"Yes."

"You let me thank Echo. You sat next to me and listened to me say Echo saved my life."

"I did."

"You let me read your emails out loud to you."

"You liked reading them out loud."

"Don't," he said. "Don't be funny."

He started pacing, hands in his hair.

"Do you know what that feels like? To find out everything you thought was a separate person was the same person who held your hand?"

"It feels like what I felt on the roof," I said.

He stopped.

"What?"

"On Friday. When you put an envelope in my hand in front of two hundred people."

"That's not the same thing."

"It's exactly the same thing," I said, standing up. "You decided I was the help. You never asked what I was."

"I never knew!"

"You never asked!"

My voice cracked off the walls.

I had held it in for two years, in kitchens, in cars and in dark booths.

Now it was out, and I could not stop it.

"I sat in the passenger seat while you told people you were single," I said.

"I sat behind a black window and listened to you pour your heart out to a man you thought was sixty."

"I didn't know it was you."

"You knew it was somebody who loved you, and you left her on the roof."

He stared at me, breathing hard.

"You lied to me," he said.

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