Chapter 2

Daniel watched me as if the right expression would give me away.

“What are you trying to do?”

“Leave.”

He wiped a hand over his face. His fingers were trembling.

“I think someone put something in my drink.”

“Then you need medical help.”

“Don't make a scene.”

The old answer rose in me automatically: *Whatever you need.* I swallowed it.

“You can call someone, or I can tell the desk on my way out. I'm not staying here alone with you.”

“Claire—”

“Lydia's address.”

He gave it to me with a look of contempt, as if I were being unreasonable about something small.

I picked up my phone, the folder Grandpa had given me, and my car keys. In the elevator, I could still feel Daniel's hand around my waist. I kept looking at the doors to make sure he wasn't following.

The concierge looked up when I reached the lobby.

“Mr. Whitmore may have been drugged,” I told her. “He's conscious and talking. He needs someone to check on him.”

Her smile vanished. “Are you all right?”

“I need to get his girlfriend.”

She called for help while I stood there. Only then did I go to the garage.

I drove too fast for the first two blocks. A horn sounded when I changed lanes, and I pulled into a parking lot until my hands stopped shaking.

I had just been given back a body that could walk. I wasn't going to throw it away trying to meet one of Daniel's deadlines.

Lydia was waiting outside her apartment building when I arrived.

She wore a thin cardigan over a pale dress. Her makeup was perfect. When she saw my car, she looked beyond it before she opened the door.

“Where is he?”

“At his apartment.”

She got in.

For the first minute, neither of us spoke. Then she turned toward me.

“I thought you would have stayed.”

I kept my eyes on the road.

“Why?”

“You always find a reason.”

At a red light, I looked at her.

She smiled. It was the smile I'd spent my first life pretending not to understand.

“He told me about you,” she said. “About what you want. Doesn't it embarrass you?”

My foot stayed on the brake. Beyond the windshield, people crossed the street carrying groceries and takeout bags. Their evening hadn't ended and started over. Mine had.

“You can have him, Lydia.”

She stared.

“I'm not competing with you.”

The light changed.

When we reached Daniel's building, a medic was speaking to him just inside his apartment. The concierge stood in the hall. She stepped aside when Lydia rushed past us.

“Daniel! Claire scared me to death. She drove like she wanted to kill us.”

I'd barely gone over the speed limit after the parking lot. It was almost comforting, hearing how quickly she could turn anything into my fault.

Daniel looked at her, then at me.

“You called them?” he asked.

“You're welcome.”

The medic asked Lydia to give him room. Daniel reached for her hand anyway.

She let him take it.

I left the folder on the hall console. Nobody stopped me when I stepped back into the corridor.

The concierge began to pull the door closed for privacy.

For years, I'd thought being shut out of Daniel's life would destroy me.

I watched the latch catch.

Then I pressed the elevator button.