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“Come on. Let’s take you home.” I hugged him to me.

“Julia, he needs to go to the hospital,” Liv said softly.

“No,” I said. “No. Goddammit.” I racked my brain for other possibilities, but I knew it was inevitable. His injury was beyond something one of us could fix or that he could heal on his own. Once the hospital had him under their authority, they could get his DNA, and Angus would be a liability to us. In one rash, rebellious gesture, it was all over for Angus. And he’d known it when he jumped.

Angus, unsteady on his feet, plopped down on the ground. “I just need a minute.”

“We’re going to get you taken care of,” Liv said. He actually nodded.

“I hope George saw it. That fucker. At least he finally knows I’m better than he is.” Angus laughed again.

Just then George came to Liv’s side. “Come on. We have to get you out.” He tried to take Liv’s hand to lead her away.

She pulled back her hand. “No, I’m staying.”

“He blew it for all of us.” George wouldn’t look at Angus, as if he knew Angus would be dead to everyone now.

“Liv,” I said, “let me handle it.”

“I’m staying with Angus. Go.” She raised her voice to George. “I don’t want this hurting anyone else.”

After George left, the three of us sat together, waiting for the crush of firefighters and police. You could hear the sirens faintly, then closer and closer, and then they descended. When Angus had been worked over and strapped down, Liv and I followed the stretcher out the front of the building to the ambulance waiting at the curb. On the street I paused midstep when I saw the black Mercedes with darkened windows. It slowed, drifting by, taking in the scene before gathering speed. Novak already knew.





Several cops milled around in the dingy reception area, knowing it would be a long wait until the doctor allowed them to question Angus. They occupied their time by playing and replaying the video of Angus that was apparently all over social media. You could tell whenever Angus landed in the video because each time the cops would exclaim as a group, “Oh shit!” and then one of them would say, “There’s no way….”

The downtown emergency room was quiet this late at night. The occasional patient was led or wheeled past Liv and me into a numbered room lining the linoleum corridor. The staff allowed us to stand outside the room where they’d taken Angus. Angus’s father, Lati, was now in the room with him. Liv and I stood unmoving, our eyes fixed on the mauve wall in front of us, waiting. Then Liv nudged me with her elbow. They’d arrived.

I saw my stepmother first, standing in the bleak fluorescent light, consulting with a young doctor. It was just like at the police station months ago, but now it was a doctor that Victoria was handling, not the police. She was making it known they were major donors and she was a physician. Special treatment, no police, more control over the situation, extra time. I was surprised she was attempting to work a situation that was a lost cause. This was far different from any close call that had come before: you couldn’t explain away what Angus had done or tell people they hadn’t really seen what they swore they had. It was time to leave town.

Though Liv and I knew he was coming, we almost missed seeing Novak enter Angus’s room. He strode so quickly down the hall, he appeared as a blur. After a lifetime of caution, he didn’t care anymore. He wasn’t hiding now that he’d be leaving.

A primal, guttural noise like I’d never heard came from the room. It immediately went under your skin, like nails on a chalkboard. The doctor who’d been speaking with Victoria abruptly began running down the hallway with a few nurses following her. It was coming from Novak. In my entire life I’d never even heard him raise his voice.

Liv and I both saw our chance to get into the room to see Angus. We slipped in, standing behind the group gathered inside.

Angus’s clothes had been cut in the ambulance, and from what I could see his legs were black and blue. He looked right at me. I felt him warning us to get out. He didn’t want us to see what was coming. Backing out, I grabbed Liv’s arm and we walked down the hall, instinctively flattening ourselves against the wall to escape notice. Victoria lingered in the middle of the suddenly empty hallway. She looked at us but didn’t move a muscle.

“Mr. Jaynes, we need to ask you to leave. Now!” the doctor was saying.

“How fucking dare you!” my dad snarled.

“Sir…”

“Get him out of here,” I heard someone say. Then my dad appeared at the doorway of Angus’s room, his face almost reptilian with the skin pulled tight, his cheekbones two jutting knots. And then, as if on command, his facial expression relaxed and he walked calmly into the hall. That was how quickly Novak regained control. It was the most frighteningly unnatural thing I’d ever seen. Victoria quickly crossed to Liv and dragged her toward an exit, leaving just me.

I watched Lati follow Novak into the hallway and lead my dad a few feet away from the room, where he thought they could have a private conversation. Their lips moved quickly. It was almost soundless. I focused everything I had on following their conversation. Angus would be straining to listen from inside the room.

“I’m done with him.”

“Come on, Novak. We’re leaving anyway. It was a boyish stunt.”