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Wet fabric.
I pull the zipper open.
Envelopes fill the main compartment.
I touch them with shaking fingers.
“For Sage when she turns eighteen.”
“For Sage when she misses Mae.”
“For Sage when she needs to laugh.”
The edges of several envelopes are damp.
One has a small burn mark.
But they’re here.
“They’re okay,” Sean says.
I press my face against the backpack.
Someone tried to burn Addy’s voice out of the world.
A sound escapes me.
Hayley comes into the room.
She stops a few feet away.
Waiting.
I reach for her.
She sits beside me and wraps her arms around my shoulders.
Sean stays in front of us.
“Why?” I whisper.
“Because Navarro is angry,” Sean answers.
“With me?”
“With all of us.”
“I brought this to you.”
“It’s my fault he burned your home down.”
“No.”
“If I hadn’t come to Iron Ridge—”
“He would still be trafficking girls,” Hayley says.
“He wouldn’t have burned Sean’s house.”