Chapter 10: The Waiting Room

The video had a hundred and ten thousand views by morning.

Winona sat in a ring light with her locket in her hand and said she had never meant to hurt anyone.

She said I had been cold for months.

She said I had put work ahead of Trent, and he had needed someone to talk to.

She said she was scared of what I might do.

The comments were split.

Half were cruel to her, and half were cruel to me.

I watched it once, all the way through, standing in the clubhouse kitchen with my coffee going cold.

"You don't have to answer that," Hank said.

"I'm not going to answer it," I said. "I'm going to see her."

"Where is she?"

"Where she always is on a Friday morning."

The dental office was in a strip mall on Wornall Road, between a nail salon and a tax preparer.

Winona had worked the front desk there for six years.

I had picked her up from that parking lot more times than I could count.

Hank parked the pickup and turned off the engine.

"Want me to come in?" he asked.

"Stand by the door."

"That's all?"

"That's plenty," I said.

I walked in with my sling and my guest vest and my hair in a clean braid.

The waiting room had eight people in it.

A mother with a toddler, two older men, a girl in braces and a teenager with an ice pack.

Winona sat behind the glass in a pink cardigan with her phone in front of her.

She looked up, and the color went out of her face.

"Laney," she said. "You can't be here."

"Hi, Winona."

"I'm at work."

"So am I," I said. "A little."

I walked up to the window and set my phone on the counter.

"I watched your video," I said. "You were very brave."

"Laney, please."

"You said I was cold. You said I never listened to you."