Chapter 8

Leo ran away the next morning.

I woke to an empty bed and an open window. Damian was already in the hallway, panicked, his hair disheveled, his voice hoarse from calling Leo’s name. We searched the house, the ridge, the trails behind the property. Nothing.

Then I remembered the chapel at Locke Medical. Leo had asked me about it once-the small non-denominational chapel on the first floor, quiet and empty at dawn.

I drove to the hospital alone. The chapel was dark except for the candles flickering at the altar. Leo was sitting in the front pew, his knees pulled to his chest, his face pressed into his arms.

“Hey,” I said.

He didn’t look up. “I’m sorry I ran.”

“It’s okay.” I sat down beside him. “I ran too, after my husband died. I ran from everything that reminded me of him. I ended up running toward the people who hurt him.”

Leo lifted his head. His eyes were red. “Is my dad a bad person?”

I thought about Damian. About the letters. About the way he had held my wrist and then let go. About the way he had looked at Leo when he thought no one was watching.

“He’s a person who made terrible choices,” I said. “And he’s trying to make different ones.”

“Because of you?”

“Because of you.” I took his hand. “Because he loves you more than he’s afraid of the truth.”

The chapel door opened. Damian walked in. He looked smaller than I had ever seen him-no suit, just a sweater and jeans, his eyes swollen. He stopped in the aisle when he saw Leo.

“Dad,” Leo said.

Damian crossed the distance between them in three steps and knelt in front of his son. He took Leo’s face in his hands.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry I lied. I’m sorry I made you carry a secret you didn’t choose. I should have told you the truth from the beginning.”

Leo’s chin trembled. “I have someone else’s heart.”

“You have the heart of a man who saved your life,” Damian said. “A man named Elias Vale. And I’ve been too much of a coward to honor him.”

Leo looked at me. Then at his father. “I want to meet his family.”

“You already have,” I said.

Damian turned to me. His face was raw, open, stripped of everything. “I’ll do it,” he said. “The board meeting. The confession. I’ll resign. I’ll fund the safety foundation. I’ll spend the rest of my life making this right.”

I looked at him for a long time. Then I nodded.

“Then let’s go,” I said.