Chapter 10: The Circled Names

I shook him awake with the newspaper in my hand.

Gabe sat up fast. The yard light was gray now. It was nearly dawn.

He saw the paper and his face changed.

"Where did you get that?" I said.

"Kaitlyn."

"It's my father's obituary. It has my name on it, and my sister's, and somebody circled them in my husband's pen."

He rubbed his face with both hands.

"It's Glen's," he said. "I took it out of his desk in March."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to see if it was true."

"If what was true?"

He looked at me for a long time.

"I promised somebody I'd let her say the first part. It's hers to say. Not mine."

"Mindy."

"Yes."

"You said one night. You said you'd tell me."

"I said it before I knew I'd be this scared," he said. "Give me until she's here. I'll call her this morning. Please. A few hours."

I stood in the middle of the loft in his T-shirt with my father's name in my fist.

I had been so happy an hour ago.

"No," I said.

"Kaitlyn."

"You don't get a few hours. You don't get to decide when I find out about my own life."

"I know."

"You're hiding it because you're afraid I'll hate you."

His jaw tightened. He did not say no.

I dressed in the dark with my back to him, and I took the paper, and I left.

The house was empty at six in the morning.

Glen's car was gone. I guessed he was at his mother's again, being comforted.

I let myself in through the garage and walked straight to his office.

The desk drawers were not locked. I went through them one by one. Pens, receipts, a tax folder. Nothing.

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