“Protect me from what?”
“From learning that Richard Hale may have built your entire life around a crime.”
A nurse appeared and told Ben he could see the twins.
He looked toward the NICU, then back at me.
“Please wait here.”
“I’m going home.”
“Claire—”
“You stay with your wife and children.”
“I won’t let you go alone.”
“You don’t get to let me do anything.”
His face tightened.
I immediately heard Rosie’s voice in my head.
Claire, Ben gets bossy when he’s scared. You get mean.
She had said it after the three of us became trapped on a stalled ski lift years earlier. Ben had spent forty minutes demanding that we conserve our phone batteries. I had told him I would throw him off the chair if he issued one more instruction.
Rosie had laughed until she cried.
The memory almost brought me to my knees.
