Chapter 13: Glasses Off

Lena's POV

I am not a person who asks questions she already knows the answers to.

I had asked one at the bike racks, because I truly didn't know, and he had said no a half second too fast.

I let it go, because his hands were shaking and the dining hall was still buzzing behind the glass.

"Come to the lab," I said. "Nobody's in there before ten."

The Kellner lab smelled like machine oil and burnt coffee.

I sat on my stool. Malcolm stood by the bench with his glasses sliding down his nose and did not push them up.

"Chelsea said I should tell you what the app told me," he said.

"Chelsea says a lot of things. She said she was engaged."

"I want you to hear one thing first. It's the reason I'm here."

He took out his phone.

"It's a recording," he said. "A little under a minute. The day of my exam, in a motel room."

"Is it hers?"

"Hers and Toby's."

I could have said I didn't need it.

Instead I said, "Play it."

He set the phone on the bench between us and pressed the screen.

I didn't watch the phone.

I watched him.

Chelsea's voice came out small and bright in the empty lab, and Toby laughed in the right places.

Malcolm didn't flinch at her voice.

He didn't flinch at Toby.

His jaw moved once, when her voice said he held her hand like he was signing a form.

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