Chapter 23: No Deadline

I went through the passes on my own front steps.

"Five," I said.

"Five."

"My mother. My father. You." I stopped. "And Rohan."

Adam raised an eyebrow.

"He's paid me three thousand dollars so far," I said. "He sold his car and he refused to lie for Evan. He can come and hold his own phone."

"And the fifth?"

"Me."

He smiled, and it changed his whole face.

"You'll be in the picture," he said.

"I'll be in every one of them."

We landed in Orlando on Thursday evening.

My parents had a suite on the third floor, and Rohan had the room beside theirs, with a window that looked at nothing but a parking lot.

He was delighted anyway.

"I've never stayed anywhere with a robe," he said.

At ten o'clock, Adam took my hand in the lobby.

"Come with me," he said. "There's something I want to show you."

He led me up the back stairs to the terrace bar above the east gate.

It was closed.

The chairs were stacked, the glass doors were dark, and the lights in the park glowed far below.

I walked to the railing.

I could see the gate where I had stood, the lamp I had leaned on, and the row of benches I hadn't taken.

It looked small from up here.

"This is where I stood," Adam said behind me. "From ten in the morning."

"It looks like nothing."

"It looked like everything."

I turned around.

He stood a few feet away in the dark, with his hands open at his sides.

"I'm not setting a Sunday," I said.

"No."

"There's no deadline this time. I don't want to hear 'until' from either of us."

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