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Her eyes briefly close as if she’s overwhelmed by my words I want to reassure her that she’s safe, but when she focuses on o cold

She hasn’t told nitude It’s etched into the shtly clamps her jaw She ss hard, an obvious effort to shore up some confidence in herself

“What is it?” I ask, taking a full step away Instinctively, I realize physical proxiht now

Lower lip trelass “There’s no easy way to say this—”

“Just spit it out, Leighton,” I demand with a bark of annoyance My tone and the comfortable use of her new name causes her to physically jolt Almost involuntarily, she reaches toward her purse, but then drops her hand

She bites down into her lower lip… hard It’s thethe tiaze darts to the door, and it’s clear she’s considering just leaving

But I’ to let that happen since shefor her to show up on my doorstep

Leighton drops her head, and it’s easy for e her new name because I’m fairly sure the woman I used to know—Tracey—is no more

Ever so slowly, she lifts her eyes until they focus on s out from underneath me

“When they canant”

A rushing roar fills o deaf for several brutal moments as I try to process what she just said, then I realize I can actually hear the thud of e

“What?” I rasp, fingers involuntarily curling into the palht fists

“I didn’t know,” she quickly adds, as if that makes a difference “I found out a feeeks later But, like I said, they wouldn’t let me call you”

“And…” I force out through gritted teeth She see out a particularly important piece of information