“What about Christine?”
“She left the residence twenty minutes ago.”
Relief and dread arrived together.
“Where is she?”
“We don’t know.”
I called her again.
Her phone was off.
At two thirty, Jake was taken for another scan. While he was gone, Daniel and I sat in the empty room.
“You should tell Ortiz everything about Mercer,” he said.
“I’ll tell her what’s relevant.”
“You don’t know what’s relevant.”
“And you do?”
“No. That’s why withholding information is dangerous.”
I rubbed my face.
“If Christine believes I targeted her family, our marriage may already be broken.”
“Then secrecy won’t repair it.”
“She knew the work was classified.”
“She knew the label. Did she know what it cost you?”
I looked at him sharply.
Daniel’s expression softened.
“You vanished from everyone after you resigned. You built a quiet life and treated silence like a foundation. But silence isn’t solid, Michael. It’s empty space. Eventually, someone else fills it.”
