Noah POVI told myself it wasn't really a lie. A lie was a thing spoken aloud, and I hadn't spoken anything at all, I had simply set the phone face-down and let Tracy fill the silence with her own trust in me. But as the morning wore on, that small omission sat in my chest like a stone I couldn't quite swallow, heavier with every hour I let it go unaddressed. Daniel's message had contained only a fragment, a possible sighting, unconfirmed, near St. Mary's Hospital, of a woman who might have been Claire.It wasn't proof of anything. It wasn't even a lead, not really. But I had promised Tracy, in that same kitchen not twenty-four hours earlier, that I would never again choose to protect her by keeping her in the dark, and here I was doing exactly that on the very first morning I had the chance.I watched her across the living room, kneeling beside Samuel as he explained, with great seriousness, the structural weaknesses of his half-built block tower, and I told myself I would tell her l
Last Updated : 2026-09-27 Read more