Chapter 11: Colin Comes

Colin came to the shop on Thursday morning with a tray of coffees and the face he used on donors.

He stopped inside the side door when he saw Hal at the mill and Doran beside me at the bench.

"Nobody told me this was a meeting," he said.

"It isn't," I said. "Sit down, Colin."

"I'd rather stand."

"Sit."

He sat on Hal's stool and set the tray on the floor.

He looked tired. He had missed a spot shaving, and his tie was the same one he'd worn on Monday.

"I came to apologize," he said. "I was awful on Friday.

"I was scared of Mother, and I said things I don't mean."

"Which things?"

"That you were unwell. That you grabbed the wheel."

"I didn't grab it to hurt her," I said. "Does that ring a bell?"

He frowned.

I turned the laptop around on the bench, and I pressed play.

At the first sound of Elora laughing, Colin's mouth went flat, because he knew that laugh.

He didn't move when the car left the line.

He didn't move when I screamed and reached for the wheel, or when the pillar filled the screen.

I let it run to the white, and then I rewound it.

I paused it on the frame I had found the day before.

I tapped the corner where his text sat across Elora's phone.

Colin: Ellie, please don't. Whatever you're thinking, don't do it.

"Read it to me," I said.

His mouth worked.

"Melina."

"Read it out loud."

"Ellie, please don't." His voice was a whisper. "Whatever you're thinking, don't do it."

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