He Hid Me for Twelve Years, Now the City Knows My Name novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Two Voices

Kate's POV

By Sunday night the clip of Sylvia had been played four million times.

It had a new caption: "What the Ashdowns really think of the coat girl."

I sat on my couch in Bridgeport with the sound off and watched strangers write that I was a gold digger who had taped a sick woman's phone calls.

Somebody had found my father's name and tagged it.

Pete texted me a picture of his middle finger held up to his own phone.

Then Sylvia texted, in full sentences with the punctuation intact.

I have made one phone call. Watch your phone at eight tomorrow morning. Wear something you like.

I wore the green sweater my father had given me the Christmas before he died.

The clinic had a conference room with a long table and a window onto the parking lot.

The board sat on one side.

The clinic director sat on the other, next to me, in a gray suit, holding my arm.

"Ms. Malloy," the board chair said, "we've had forty calls since Saturday. Parents are asking whether their children are safe with a woman who records private conversations."

"I didn't record anyone."

"The public doesn't know that."

"I treat their kids," I said. "A six-year-old on my caseload learned to stand on a balance board in November. Ask her whether I'm safe."

"We aren't questioning your work. We're asking for leave of absence, unpaid, until this settles."

I felt my throat close.

The clinic was the one place Harrison had never reached.

It was mine, and I had paid for it with years of nights and weekends.

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