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"Peri!"

Silas fidgeted, unable to , bitter and vindictive as she opened the car and got in, lip curling that it s Silas, but it was outweighed by the horror at the tehing He knehy she was leaving--running away She wanted what he offered, and she didn’t dare teet here, okay?"

Frantic, Silas divided his attention between her and Jack "Where are you going? Peri, talk to me!"

"Somewhere else," she said, then slammed the door shut "We can fix this," Silas called out "I promise"

She started the car and rolled the n "I’m sorry I have to And thank you"

"Don’t do this God bless it, woht she heard shots as she drove away, but there was no change when she looked in the rearviewthere horrified, unable to stop her as he held Jack un, and helpless tears slipped frorily wiped theh to the bridge to Canada that she would be across it before Fran’s call could stop her She didn’t need a passport to go over the bridge, not with her enhanced driver’s license They’d think she was just a woet her cat and knitting The clothes she’d leave, though Allen’s taste in wohter sounded fanatical, and she turned the radio on to distract herself fro, but she couldn’t stay Jack was alive, a temptation she didn’t know if she could resist She couldn’t be that person anyer to herself So she would leave, and go somewhere far away, pick up the pieces of her shattered facsimile of a life and start anew

She was done with it Done with it all

EPILOGUE

I should have hite sneakers, Peri thought as she strode purposefully through the wide corridors with their unifor Her borrowed scrubs were a pale blue to ottento hera dust cap in passing fro her short hair under it Behind her, two nurses and an aide went to fuss over thenot to glance in and ruin what little privacy the residents had She found the one she was looking for across frorand, playing

MRS CAROLINE REED

Head down, Peri took the clipboard hanging on the door, hiding her face fro orderly There was a current picture of herhint of the strong woth and determination hidden under the wrinkles and indistinct focus Beneath it was a brief description of her life, the highlights and accos, divorces Peri wasn’t on it