Sacrifices (34 page)

He’s done it again: closed the door on her, just like he did when she was a kid.

Louise unhooks the hoodie from its hanger and shrugs it on, walking toward Michael.

“Okay, Mike, let’s go,” she says, and as he looks across at her, smiling his distant smile, she very slowly and very deliberately lifts the cowl of the hoodie.

Louise watches
Michael Lane’s eyes as the fragile version of reality he’s painstakingly assembled these past weeks is blown into an infinity of dark, empty space.

At last she has his attention.

THE END