Chapter 6: I Can't Breathe

The cold came up through the floor first.

I felt it in my ankles, and then my knees.

Under my coat the vest was set to high, and it was losing.

"Dette," Kellan said. He had swung his legs off the table. "That's enough. Turn it off."

"One more minute." Odette didn't look at him. She was watching my hands.

"She's acting, Kel. She came all the way here to make you feel guilty."

He looked at me.

I didn't have to act. My fingertips had gone gray, and I could hear my own teeth.

"I rejected you," I said. "Open the door."

"Stop it, Willa."

"Open it."

He took one step.

Then he looked at Odette's face, and at the remote in her hand, and he stopped.

In twelve years I had never seen him stop for her.

I had only ever seen him choose her.

My legs went out.

I sat on the floor, and then I was lying on it, and the tiles were so cold they burned.

The room tilted. Somewhere above me Odette said, "She does this."

I put my hand in my pocket and touched the recorder. It was still on.

That was my last thought for a while.

I woke to noise.

A fist was beating on the steel door, and a voice I knew was shouting my name.

The lock clicked open from outside.

The door swung in on my father in his mismatched socks. Behind him were the lawyer and Hester.

"Willa."

He dropped to his knees and gathered me up.

His hands were warm. I had forgotten that hands could be warm.

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