Chapter 8: Forty-Eight Hours
The laboratory results came back in thirty-one hours, not forty-eight.
Damien called me himself.
"Verathen," he said.
"Confirmed.
Concentration consistent with deliberate administration.
The report names it specifically."
I was sitting on the floor of my apartment with my back against the wall because the eviction notice was on the kitchen table and I hadn't been able to look at it since I got home.
"Okay," I said.
"Renata was formally arrested this morning.
Victor surrendered to his attorney at seven a.m.
and is cooperating fully with the state's attorney's office." A pause.
"It will be in the news by tonight.
I wanted you to know before it was."
"Thank you."
"Are you all right?"
I looked at the ceiling.
"I'm fine."
"You're sitting on the floor," he said.
I looked at the phone.
"How do you—"
"The way your voice sounds," he said.
"I've heard it before.
In people who have been running on adrenaline and have just stopped."
I didn't say anything.
"Come to the house," he said.
"I told you there were things I wanted to discuss.
That offer is still open."
"I'm not in a position to take charity," I said.
"I'm not offering charity," he said.
"I'm offering a conversation.
What you do with it is your decision."
I looked at the eviction notice across the room.
"Give me an hour," I said.
The house was not what I expected.
It was large, yes, and secured in ways that were visible if you knew what to look for.
But the room he brought me to was quiet and plain — a study with books on three walls and two chairs near a window that looked out over a garden that had gone dormant for winter.
The twins were in a playpen in the corner.
Both awake.
One was chewing on a soft block.
The other was watching me with the same focused attention he had turned on my hand the night before.
I sat down in one of the chairs.
Damien sat across from me.
"I want to offer you a position," he said.
"Formally.
With a contract, a salary, and terms you can negotiate."
"What kind of position?"
"The boys need consistent therapeutic support," he said.
"Not reactive.
Proactive.
Someone who understands their neurological profile and can build a structured sensory environment for them as they develop." He looked at me steadily.
"You have the training.
You have the practical understanding of their specific vulnerability.
And you have the judgment to act when it matters."
"My license was revoked," I said.
"Your license was revoked on the basis of a fraudulent report," he said.
"My attorney has already been in contact with the Illinois licensing board.
The documentation Victor provided last night directly contradicts the findings that led to your review.
The reinstatement process will take time, but the grounds for reversal are solid."
I looked at the twin with the soft block.
He had stopped chewing and was watching his brother.
"You did all of this since last night," I said.
"I had people working through the night," he said.
"Yes."
"Why?"
He was quiet for a moment.
"Because my sons are alive because you walked past their table," he said.
"And because the same man who tried to harm them also took three years of your life.
Both of those things deserve to be corrected."
The twin in the corner made a small sound.
Not distress.
Just presence.
I looked at Damien.
"What are the terms?" I asked.
He told me.
The salary was more than I had earned in the three years combined.
The contract included a housing provision — a guest apartment on the property — and a clause that tied the arrangement to the reinstatement of my license, at which point the terms would be renegotiated upward.
I sat with it for a moment.
"I want one addition," I said.
"Name it."
"The medical debt," I said.
"Not as a gift.
As an advance against the first year's salary.
I pay it back on a schedule.
I want it documented."
He nodded once.
"Done."
I looked at the twins.
At the garden outside.
May you like
At the books on three walls and the quiet room and the two small boys who had no idea that the night before had been the last time anyone would get close enough to hurt them.
"All right," I said.
