As Mathew opened his mouth to speak, the front door opened and closed with a soft thump. Gabi startled at the unmistakable clatter of her father’s keys landing in the shallow basket on the foyer table where he kept his passcard. Sam was bound to notice the card was missing, yet his footsteps continued into the living room without pause. Reluctantly she followed Mathew into the living room to greet their father.
Sam and Mathew sat on the worn velveteen sofa, and Gabi curled into an armchair across from them, taking in the lavender pouches under Sam’s eyes and the new sag to his stubbled cheeks.
“Hi, honey.” Sam sighed, attempting a smile that slipped, then failed entirely as the rest of his face refused to cooperate. “You get something to eat?”
“You wouldn’t believe it, Dad,” Mathew blurted, desperate to lift their father’s spirits. “I actually heard her stomach grumble. Then she went to the fridge, got a cup of yogurt, and ate the whole thing!”
Sam’s face brightened. “Is that right? Proud of you, honey.”
“Uh, Dad?” Mathew ventured. Sam threw an arm around his son’s shoulders and pulled him in for a hug.
“I’m proud of you too. You really came through for me. I know you’re worried about your gram. She was stable when I left, but very tired. We’ll all go together tomorrow, okay?” Sam’s voice held tears, and he hugged Mathew more tightly to his rumpled shirtfront. “I told Gram why you couldn’t come, and she understood. She knows you love her, and she loves you too. Don’t either of you forget that.”
Mathew nodded, his hands knotting and unknotting in his lap. Gabi wondered if he, too, had noticed the false chord in her father’s words.
“But what happened, Dad?” Mathew asked. “Why did everyone want to talk to Gram so bad, and why were there Minders watching the outside of the Care Center? Is it because of who tripped the alarm?” Gabi’s spine straightened. Of course she was desperate to know the full story, but was she really ready to hear of the horror that had terrorized her grandmother? If her father’s ravaged face was any indication, she didn’t know if she would ever be ready.
Sam pretended to study a glass dish on the coffee table, but Gabi could sense his deep confusion, as though he was lost in his own backyard. She wanted to throw herself at Mathew and clap her hands over his ears to shield them both from what Gram’s story would surely take from them. She couldn’t have explained it, but as clearly as she’d ever known anything, she knew that the haze clouding the room like smoke was Loss itself. It had entered with her father, and now it was poised over her and Mathew like a hatchet.
“It was the wiring,” Sam whispered hoarsely. A fist squeezed Gabi’s chest. No. Gram had said nothing about wiring. She’d said… what? Gabi struggled to remember, but the queer, robotic monotony of her father’s voice derailed her thoughts. “The Care Center building was the first one reclaimed when Alder became the governing seat of Unitas, and it hasn’t been upgraded in too long. We’ve put off renovations because it would take a total overhaul, since some of the materials originally used aren’t available anymore. Something like this was bound to happen.”
Gram said not to tell anyone because she needed to speak to Sam herself. Maybe Gram had told him the truth but they’d decided to keep it secret until they could figure out whom to trust? Nothing made sense. Gabi wanted to push for answers, but she hardly knew where to begin. “But, Dad, if it was just wiring, then why all the security?” she pressed.
Sam’s answer came as though he were reading it from note cards.
“It was just a precaution in case there’s a liability issue. Since the alarm triggered Gram’s heart attack, they were worried someone might encourage her to take action against the council.”
“You mean sue?” Mathew pressed. “But Gram wouldn’t do that, would she?”
“No, of course not,” Sam said. “Like I told you, it was just a precaution.”
“And the Minders?”
“The council didn’t want everyone getting stirred up by false reports of someone snooping around unauthorized. A statement will go out in the bulletin tomorrow, and everything will be fine.” But there was nothing fine about it, not in Sam’s face, his voice, or his words. What about Gram’s story? What about what she’d seen?
At the sound of a knock at the door, what little color remained in their father’s face drained away. He stayed Mathew with a touch on the arm. “I’ll get it.”
But he didn’t move. Sam just kept his hand on Mathew’s arm, looking between his son and Gabi as though trying to memorize every detail. She didn’t know she was crying until she opened her mouth to speak and a tear slipped over her upper lip. “Dad?”
The knock sounded again, more insistent this time. Sam moved toward the door with leaden feet. In the pause he took before he opened the door, head bowed and fists clenched, Gabi realized her father knew who it was. Gabi had thought her father would be the bearer of the message that invited Loss back into their home, but instead it was Messenger Nystrom, standing in the spot where Gram once called Gabi in from the cold. With every beat of her weak heart, Gabi knew that her gram was dead.
Chapter FOUR
GABI COULD hear Mathew’s strangled sobs through the door of his room, where he’d fled the minute Messenger Nystrom spoke the horrible words “She’s gone. I’m so sorry.” Sam had tried to follow him, but Mathew closed the door
