Chapter 5: Where He Was

The name was typed in capital letters, over an empty line.

They'd typed my name for me.

They just needed my hand.

"They think I'll sign," I said.

"Will you?"

I didn't answer him.

I was back in that night, and I couldn't get out.

The hospital called me at 11:20.

Daniel's phone went to voicemail four times while I put my shoes on.

Lily was asleep. Raymond was asleep at the far end of the second floor. I didn't wake anybody.

I just ran.

I got to the ER bay in time to hold my mother's hand for a few precious minutes.

I drove home at 1:30 in the morning with her rings in a plastic bag on the passenger seat.

I lay down in my clothes on top of Lily's covers and listened to her breathe.

At 2:10 the side door opened downstairs.

I knew his walk.

He came up the back stairs slowly, without turning on a light.

He didn't look in on Lily.

He didn't look for me.

I got up and stood in the hall, and I watched him through the crack of our bedroom door.

He took off his dark wool coat.

It was soaked dark across both shoulders.

It hadn't rained in San Francisco in nine days.

He held his right hand away from his body.

There was a long cut across the palm, and blood had dried down his wrist into his white cuff.

He stood at the sink and picked at the cuff with his fingernails.

Something glittered in the light and fell into the basin.

Then he turned on the shower and stood under it for forty minutes.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Goodbye to the Man Who Betrayed Us from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.