The Day My Family Left Me to Die novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Roof Stairs

I opened my mouth to lie, and Seth got there first.

"I told her," he said.

My brother turned his head.

"I saw the transfer paper on the desk at midnight," Seth said. "It looked wrong to me. I told Hattie, because she's on the floor all night and she talks to the nurses, and she went and found Heidi. That's all."

"She talks to the nurses," Nolan said. "She doesn't talk."

"She writes fast," Seth said.

Nolan looked at him for a long time.

Then he looked at me, at the long uniform and the jacket that was too big and the cracked phone sticking out of the pocket.

"Fine," he said. "Thank you. Both of you."

He did not sound sure of it.

He walked away to talk to his detective, and my mother put a hand on my shoulder as she went past.

"Go home, Hattie," she said. "Tomorrow is the real day."

The sky was getting gray over the parking structure by the time my shift ended.

I did not go home.

I climbed the back stairs to the roof door and sat on the top step with my knees pulled up, because it was the one place in the building where nobody was keeping score.

The door opened below me.

I knew the weight of the footsteps.

"I thought I'd find you up here," Seth said.

He sat on the step beneath mine, with his back against the wall, and held out a paper cup.

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