Chapter 11: I Carried You Out

He was standing at the window when I came in, with his back to me and his hands at his sides.

I put the hospital file on the table. It made a flat sound.

"R. Carrow," I said. "Nine days in the burn unit. Say it."

He turned around.

For two years I had never seen him unsure. He looked unsure now.

"I carried you out," Rhys said.

I had known it for an hour, and still my knees went weak.

"Say the rest."

"Your father's hotel caught fire at eleven. I was in the lobby for a meeting with him."

"The sprinklers failed on three. By the time I got to four, the corridor was black."

"I don't remember any of it," I said.

"You were on the floor of room four-oh-six, with a wet towel on your face."

"You had pulled it down yourself." His voice was very even. "I picked you up and took the stairs."

"Your hair was wet. I remember that, because I thought: she's alive."

My throat closed.

"A beam came down on the second landing. It caught my arm. I kept going."

"You went back in."

"There was a man in the stairwell." He shrugged one shoulder. "I couldn't leave him."

"And the watch?"

"It came off my wrist when the beam fell. You had it in your fist when they took you from me."

"You wouldn't let go of it. A paramedic said it was the only thing you were holding."

I took the chain out of my collar and put the watch on the table between us.

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