Chapter 6

But Emma didn’t come. He waited patiently, because he never doubted his Emma. But the door never opened. The door that Jesse only gradually realized wasn’t his. And the bed wasn’t the bed he shared with his lovers. He wasn’t in his home.

The implication was too large to comprehend at once, and so his fear grew, a small block at a time. It took nearly six hours of his prolonged solitude and bleak silence before the final block fell into place and Jesse could name his fear.

He was alone. He had been taken, again. Somehow.

Later, Jesse learned he wasn’t alone at all. Michelle hovered nearby, strangely anxious and just out of reach. Dominique watched him from the doorway, ignoring Michelle when she told the girl to leave Jesse alone. And of course, there was his father, distant and curious, a single name always hanging between them. Michelle spoke to him first.

We need to talk, Jess.