What do you mean?” I asked.
My voice sounded weak. Smaller than I remembered.
Daniel did not move. He stood with one hand resting against the wall, dressed in a dark sweater and jeans, his jaw tight, his eyes red in a way that told me he had not slept much. Daniel had never liked me completely, but he had always been civil. He was a mechanic, practical, quiet, the kind of man who said little because he believed words were only useful when they fixed something.
That night, he looked at me like I was something too broken to repair.
“I mean she’s gone,” he said.
My stomach dropped.
“Gone where?”
He gave a short, humorless breath. “That’s the first thing you ask?”
“What else am I supposed to ask?”
“You could start with whether she’s alive.”
The room tilted.
