The Dragon Mother Returns: Taking Back Everything That Belongs to My Daughter novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Valley

By morning it had four hundred thousand likes.

By noon there were six photographers on the hotel steps.

They shouted at Matthias when he went out for his walk at six.

"Hey, mountain man! How much is she paying you?"

"Matthias! Did you know who she was when you found her?"

A woman in a running jacket called him a leech to his face, then took a selfie with him behind her.

A Swiss paper ran the photo by lunchtime. Somebody called his valley's rescue service to ask if volunteers checked victims' bank balances.

His brother called twice. Matthias took the calls in the hallway, in low, flat German.

Clara texted me from the new phone at two.

im so sorry. i didnt know she'd do that. shes laughing about it at the pool

I wrote back: Not your fault. Eat something.

She sent back a whale.

At six that evening Matthias knocked on my office door on the forty-fourth floor.

He had his duffel bag over his shoulder.

He was wearing the borrowed suit from the memorial.

"I have a flight at ten," he said.

"You're going home."

"I am making this worse." He said it quietly, like a weather report. "Every day I stand next to you, they have a story that isn't about your daughter. Without me, they have only her lies. Those don't last."

"That's not your decision."

"It is my face in the photo."

"It's my wallet."

"There are cameras in the lobby," he said. "Is there another way down?"

"The stairs. You climb mountains."

"Mountains have views."

I took him to the fire stairs myself.

The stairwell was cold gray concrete, lit by a caged bulb on every landing.

He went down three steps and turned around to say goodbye.

It put his face level with mine.

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