The Daughter They Abandoned Twice novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Elko

Hallie's POV

Levi had soot in his hair and a paper bag in his lap, and he had lied to me once, so I let him hold the door.

I'd given him exactly one lie, in the Wichita driveway at dawn, and I told him so.

He said, "One is the number I'm using up."

Then he showed me the sandals.

That was two days ago.

Now we stood in the front lobby of the Elko hospital, in Nevada, under a sign that said Intensive Care, third floor.

Lorna was a thousand miles away in her yellow kitchen, waiting for my call.

"Go," she had said, at the door. "Find your girl. I'll keep the porch light on."

Her girl.

She meant Cassidy, the girl I had taken, and she said it without any blame.

In the diner across the street, a night waitress had looked at the age-progression photo Levi carried and said, "That's Cass. Third floor. She's the one who stays late when somebody's dying."

Now Levi stood beside me and could not make his feet go to the elevator.

"What if she doesn't know me?" he said.

"Then you tell her your name."

"What if she does?"

I looked at him.

His hands were shaking, and his jaw was set so hard a muscle jumped under the old scar through his eyebrow.

I told myself he had not slept in two days.

I put my hand flat between his shoulder blades.

I had not touched him there before.

He drew a long breath, and he leaned back into my palm, just slightly, and neither of us moved away.

"Okay," he said.

I kept my hand where it was for three more breaths.

Then the elevator opened and a woman in navy scrubs walked out of it.

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