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Only then did he move.
He crossed to the desk. His hands hovered over a plain brown parcel. Like he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to touch it.
“Before, on the phone you asked me what the image was.” He turned around and looked me dead in the eye. “I wasn’t ready to tell you.”
I stilled. My focus narrowing not on the package. But the man who’d lay his life on the line for me.
Lie?
Never.
Not without reason.
“I opened it.” His voice was quieter now. He slid the package toward me. “I wish I hadn’t.”
Plain brown paper.
No return address.
No handwriting.
Just one typed label.
THE REVENANT.
Silence settled over the room. Even Rafe stopped breathing.
I moved without thought. Reached out. Picked it up. No wires. No powder. I trusted Malek with my life. But it was empty. No. Something shifted inside. I pushed my fingers in and pulled it out.
A photograph.
Old.
Black and white.
The edges worn.
Creased from being folded and unfolded over decades. As though someone carried this around with them for a very long time. I opened it. Looked at the image… and turned cold.
Theresa sat on a picnic blanket.
Lily laughed and ran in front of her.
But Theresa wasn’t looking at the camera.
No.
She was looking at me.
I stood in the distance. My back turned. My phone against my ear.
The look on her face hit me like a blow.
She wasn’t looking at our daughter. She was looking at me. Smiling. Like I was the only thing in her world.
My gaze shifted.
Moving from her.
