Chapter 1 - The Man Outside Her Door
Mara woke to the sound of a lock clicking.
She came off the hospital bed so quickly that the monitor beside her began to beep. Pain burned across her shoulder. Something tugged at her hand.
A tube.
A needle.
A room with only one door.
“No.”
The word scraped out of her throat.
A nurse stopped beside the doorway, holding a cup of ice.
“Sweetheart, you’re in the hospital.”
Mara backed into the wall.
“Open it.”
“It’s open.”
“Open it all the way.”
The nurse looked at the door, then pushed it against the stopper.
“There.”
Mara stared at the gap.
She could see a hallway. A cleaning cart. A woman in purple scrubs speaking into a telephone.
Nobody was blocking the way.
Her legs began to shake.
The nurse set down the cup.
“My name is Rosa. May I come closer?”
Mara did not answer.
Rosa waited.
That was the first strange thing.
At Ridgeline, silence had counted as permission for adults to do whatever they wanted.
Here, the nurse remained where she was until Mara gave a small nod.
“You have some stitches in your shoulder,” Rosa said. “You swallowed seawater, and you were very cold. We need to keep watching you.”
“Where’s the lady?”
“The woman from the car?”
Mara nodded.
“She’s alive.”
Mara closed her eyes.
The room tilted with relief.
Rosa helped her sit only after asking. Then she adjusted the blanket around Mara’s knees and explained every wire before touching it.
A little later, another woman appeared.
She had short gray hair, a canvas bag, and an identification badge clipped where Mara could see it.
“I’m Dana Whitcomb. I work with children and families.”
Mara’s body went rigid.
Dana noticed.
“I’m not taking you anywhere right now. First, I need to understand what happened.”
“Nothing.”
“Something happened to your shoulder.”
“The rocks.”
“And before the ocean?”
Mara looked at the open door.
Dana followed her gaze.
“We can leave that open.”
Mara picked at the edge of the blanket.
“Are you calling Ridgeline?”
“I need to know whether you’ve been reported missing. But I also need to hear why you left.”
“I didn’t steal anything.”
Dana sat in the chair, keeping her distance.
“I didn’t ask whether you did.”
“They’ll say I did.”
“Who will?”
Before Mara could answer, voices rose in the hallway.
A man spoke quietly, but the quiet had weight.
“My wife is asking for the child who saved her.”
Rosa answered.
“And the child is receiving care.”
A pause.
Then the man said, “Of course.”
Mara looked toward the doorway.
He appeared a moment later, tall and broad, with dark hair silvering at the temples. His coat looked expensive. His face looked as though smiling had once been easier.
He stopped outside the room.
Not inside.
“May I speak to her?”
Dana looked at Mara.
“That’s your decision.”
Mara had never heard anyone say that about a man who looked like him.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“Alessandro Moretti. Camille is my wife.”
Mara searched his face.
“Is she really okay?”
“She’s being treated. She keeps asking whether you are.”
Mara looked down.
“I broke her window.”
For a second, Alessandro seemed unable to answer.
Then he lowered himself into the hallway chair so they were nearly at eye level.
“We can replace a window.”
“It was a nice car.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
His expression changed.
“You have nothing to apologize for.”
Mara did not know what to do with that.
He rested his hands on his knees.
“Camille told me your name.”
She nodded.
“Mara.”
“It’s a good name.”
“My mom picked it.”
“Then she chose well.”
The mention of her mother opened something Mara had kept nailed shut for four years.
She looked away quickly.
Alessandro did not ask where her mother was.
Instead, he said, “Thank you for helping my wife.”
Mara’s fingers tightened in the blanket.
“Do I have to go back now?”
The question silenced everyone.
Dana leaned forward.
“Back to Ridgeline?”
Mara swallowed.
“Mr. Lang says people always send us back.”
Alessandro’s face became very still.
Before he could speak, footsteps sounded in the hall.
A man in a beige jacket approached the nurses’ station carrying a folder.
Mara recognized the voice before she saw him.
“There’s been a misunderstanding. I’m responsible for the girl.”
Her stomach dropped.
Lang.
He turned toward her doorway and smiled.
“There you are, Sparrow.”
Mara pulled the blanket over her head.
Outside, Alessandro stood.
“She’s frightened,” he said.
Lang’s smile never moved.
“She has behavioral difficulties. We’ve been dealing with them for years.”
Dana stepped into the hall.
“Then you can give me your identification and the relevant placement documents.”
“I’ll take her home first.”
“No,” Dana said.
Mara stopped breathing beneath the blanket.
No adult had ever told Lang no where she could hear it.
Alessandro’s voice followed, colder now.
“She isn’t leaving with you.”
Lang looked at him.
Recognition crossed his face.
Then fear.
Only a flicker.
But Dana saw it.
So did Rosa.
May you like
And beneath the blanket, Mara heard the silence that came afterward.
For the first time since she ran, the dangerous man was not the one standing closest to her bed.
