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I answer him honestly. “I would have left the mountain and I would not have come here. I wanted you to see me, Rhys. I did not want the police to see me first. If you had called, this house would be empty and you would still have five bodies and no name to go with it.”

He looks at the phone on his knee. He still does not pick it up.

“You keep saying you love me,” he says. “Say what that meant when Noah was on the floor. Say what that meant when Shane was dying in my hands.”

“It meant I wanted you more than I wanted them alive. That is the truth, and I know it hurts, but I will not turn it into something you can take to court and feel better about. I watched you cover Noah. I watched you hold Shane and I hated that your hands were on him and not on me, and I still did not stop you. That is as close to proof as I can give you without lying.”

He sits with that. The clock keeps going. He swallows again and his eyes are wet and furious, and this time he does not wipe them.

“I am a lawyer,” he says. “I know what a confession is, and I know what a motive is. I know what it means that I have not called that number yet. Do not talk to me like I have already chosen you, Cruz, because I haven’t. I am sitting here because if I stand up, I am either going to put my hands on your throat, or do something else to you that I will not be able to talk myself out of, or I am going to put that phone to my ear and call Pell. I do not trust any of those options.”

“Then keep asking.”

He nods once, small, like a man who has decided to stay in the room for one more question and has not agreed to anything past that. He does not ask the next question straight away. He sits with the phone on his knee and looks at me like he is still trying to take in the fact that I am the one who was under the mask.

“Say you are sorry,” he says.

I don’t, because I can’t.

“No.”

He waits, as if the word might change if he gives it time.

“I am not going to sit in your house and pretend I wish I had let them live,” I say. “I would put that mask on and do it all again. I would take Noah off nineteen, Lo off thirty-seven, Kit out of that copy room, Ivy off those stairs, and Shane out of that car park, because they were in the way and I wanted you more than I wanted them breathing. I know that is not what you want to hear. It is still the truth. You asked for it.”

He looks like I have hit him without lifting a hand.

“You do not get to say that in my house.”

“I already did it in your building. Admitting it is the honest part.”

He stares at me. The lawyer is in his face now, even while he shakes.

“If I pick up this phone and call Pell,” he says, “what do you do?”

“I leave. I do not put a hand on you. I do not put a hand on Lena or anyone else. I walk off this mountain and you never see this face again. You keep five bodies and a case that does not close. That is the line. I am not going to fight you for the phone.”

He looks at the screen on his knee, and he does not touch it.

“You took more than an hour,” he says.

“I took five people. I took the nights you were supposed to sleep. I took the voice in your ear and I kept it there. I am not going to stand here and call that small.”

He nods once. It is not a yes.

“Do not look at me like this is already decided,” he says. “I can still end it with one call.”

“I know.”

His voice comes out thinner than he wants it to.

“Then say it plain, Cruz. No speech. What do you want now? What do you want in the next hour?”

I do not move closer. The phone stays on his knee. The mask stays on the table.

“I am not going to run,” I say. “I am not going to walk into a station and put my hands out, and I am not going to stand in a court and call five people a love story. I am not going to give Lena my name or this face.”

He watches my mouth like he is taking a statement.