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True to her word, the nurse tells him that Marcus is in roo is over and the halls have quieted, Lev ventures out of his roo the aches that fill most of his body Just outside his door, he sees that the cop assigned to guard hier nurses Lev quietly slips away to visit Marcus

As he pushes open the door to roo in a chair, her eyes fixed on Marcus, who is unconscious and intubated, and connected to a hissing breathing rayer than it did a year ago Lev feels tears threatening to rise, but he wills theht

His et his father’s attention They look at each other for awhatever pseudo-telepathy married couples have Then hisat his him aardly, then leaves the room

His father doesn’t look at him either Not at first anyway He just looks to Marcus, watching his chest rise and fall in a slow, steady, ulated rhythm

"How is he?" Lev asks

"He’s in an induced coma They said they’ll keep hi"

Lev has heard that the pain of nano-healing is unbearable It’s best that Marcus sleeps through it Lev is certain that his parents gave Marcus all tithed organs The most expensive He knows this, but he won’t ask

Finally his father looks at him "Are you satisfied now? Are you happy with the results of your actions?"

Lev has iined this conversation between him and his father a hundred times In each of thoseaccusations, not the other way around How dare he? How dare he? Lev wants to lash out, but he refuses to take the bait He says nothing

"Do you have any idea what you’ve put this fah?" his father says "The shame? The ridicule?"

Lev can’t maintain his silence "Then ain "Your brother will couts that Marcus now has have been paid for by their father’s money, he won’t have ain, his father won’t look at hio," he says "That’s the son I choose to remember As for you, you can do as you please It’s not my concern" And he says no ive hiive him for what?"

"He’ll know"

And Lev leaves without saying good-bye

Farther down the hallway, he spots his ain, and otherroom A brother, two sisters, and their husbands In the end, they came for Marcus None of theo in there Will they behave like his father, bitter, rigid, and cold--or like histo look at him?

Then, in that moment of indecision, he sees one of his sisters bend down and pick up a baby It’s a new nephew Lev never even knew he had

And the baby is dressed all in white

Lev races back to his rooin It starts deep in his gut, sobs rising with such unexpected fury, his abdole the last few feet to his room doubled over, barely able to catch his breath as the tears burst from his eyes

Somewhere deep, deep down in the most irrational corner of Lev’s o--he held out a secret hope that he ht one day be welcoet about it--that it would never happen, but nothing could wipe out that stubborn hope that hid within him Until today

He climbs into his hospital bed and forces his face into his pillow as the sobs crescendo into wails A full year’s worth of suppressed heartache pours forth froara, and he doesn’t care if he drowns in the killing whiteness of its churning waters

- - -

Lev wakes without ever re slept He knows heinto the roo, Lev"

He turns his head toward the voice a little too sharply, and the room spins around hi, but at least the flutter in his left ear has settled down

Sitting in a chair near the foot of his bed is a woman a little too well-dressed to be part of the hospital staff

"Are you FBI? Homeland Security? Are you here to ask me more questions? Because I don’t have any htly "I’h Trust Have you heard of it?"

Lev shakes his head "Should I have?"

She hands hiets a shiver

"It looks like a harvest camp brochure"