It was all she could manage.
After he left, Sarah sat beside her.
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
Sarah nodded.
Chloe looked at the doorway.
“But I think he answered.”
She did not mean he had made anything right.
Only that, for once, a difficult question had not been turned back against her.
Leaving the hospital frightened her more than entering it.
Inside, there were call buttons.
Nurses.
Doors that did not open simply because Aaron wanted them to.
Outside was the city.
Her old apartment.
The shop where she bought milk.
The bus route he knew.
Miriam helped arrange temporary accommodation through a service Chloe chose.
The address was not given to Lorenzo.
He did not request it.
Sarah visited carrying clean clothes and a paper bag of groceries.
Chloe stood beside the bed looking at the small room.
“I’m making a lot of trouble.”
Sarah put down the bag.
“For whom?”
“Everyone.”
“Name one.”
Chloe looked at her.
Sarah’s eyes filled.
“Because I can name someone who made trouble. He isn’t in this room.”
Chloe sat on the bed.
Her hands began to shake.
Sarah sat beside her.
They remained there until the shaking eased.
There was soup to heat.
Laundry to fold.
A television neither knew how to operate.
They argued mildly over the remote.
It was the first disagreement Chloe had participated in for months without calculating what might happen afterward.
Aaron was removed from his regular duties while the allegations were investigated.
It did not mean Chloe immediately felt safe.
When an unfamiliar number called, she stared until the screen went dark.
When somebody knocked, she stopped breathing.
When Sarah arrived five minutes late, Chloe imagined every terrible explanation before remembering traffic existed.
Some days, she wanted to call him.
That ashamed her most.
She admitted it to Miriam during an appointment.
The advocate did not look shocked.
“You know his patterns,” she said. “You spent a long time organizing your life around them.”
Chloe looked down.
