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“Usually, he runs to a safe place. It could be mine, for example, or Mateo’s,” Sterling explains. “But if he needs absolute silencearound him, there is just one place he could have gone to. Do you have a pen? I am going to tell you the address.”

I rummage in my pocket, taking out the pen and small notebook I always carry around. “Yes, go ahead.”

After Sterling gave me the address, his previous words make so much more sense. “That’s in the middle of nowhere,” I mutter. “Don’t tell me, he went there on foot?”

“He probably did run parts of it, but might have taken a cab for the remainder of the way,” Sterling says. “He is on autopilot usually when he has an anxiety attack. He dissociates.”

I remember last night, after his mother assaulted him. There was a moment when Noel seemed to be completely gone, far away in his mind.

“The place is safe, though,” Sterling continues. “I promise. It’s a small cottage next to a lake, on private property.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because it belongs to me,” Sterling says, a tremor in his voice. “Or rather, it belonged to my late grandfather, who abandoned us for years until he was at the end of his life, and wanted to make amends. Roxana and I both hate the place. I want to sell it, but it’s hard to do so because it’s run-down and in the middle of nowhere.”

His words linger with me for a while, while I keep staring at the address. “You have it up for sale?”

“Yeah, been trying to sell it for two years now, but those who are interested either don’t have the money, or they want to tear the place down and put a hotel there or a golf course, and I am not ready to have the place ruined. It’s a beautiful spot, you know?”

“I’d need to look at it to make a decision,” I mutter.

“Excuse me?”

“I will go there immediately,” I tell him. “Once I have found him and scolded him, I will make sure you know he is okay. Well,maybe not exactly in that order. But I will send you and Mateo a message. For everything else, I will call you tomorrow.”

thirty

*ADEN*

It’s night when I reach Sterling’s cottage. He didn’t exaggerate when he said it needs to have quite a lot of work done, but he didn’t convey how beautiful the surroundings truly are. I am not surprised he doesn’t want this to become a tourist spot. The lake has a sandy beach, a private area and is suitable for swimming. There is a bridge, and plenty of space to sit or lie comfortably. I was expecting a forest surrounding this place, but it’s all free, just bushes, some grass and a sandy beach. Almost as if I am at the ocean, on a wild, deserted island.

Funny how such a place exists so close to the buzzing city, and I had no idea it was here. A true hidden gem.

“Aden…”

I turn around to see Noel. He must have heard the sound of my car and stepped outside the cottage. He looks pale andexhausted, and as though he has been crying. My eyes wander down to his hand, where he is holding his phone.

“I ran out of battery when I arrived here earlier today,” he blurts out.

“Is that the reason no one was able to reach you?”

“Yes, though… I guess right at the beginning I wouldn’t have been able to pick up either way.”

Well, at least he is honest.

“I am so sorry,” he says, sounding miserable. “I didn’t mean to disappear like that. I just… ran. And when I came to my mind again, I was here. My phone wasn’t working, and it was too late for me to walk back on foot.”

“Are you telling me you dissociated the whole way from my place to this?” I ask, instantly alarmed.

Noel looks anxious at my words, as if he is scared that I might reprimand him in case he does. “It doesn’t happen a lot,” he hurries to explain. “Actually, it barely happens. It used to happen when my parents would”—he stops before breathing a sigh—“when they would beat me while they were drunk.”

I look at him once more, noting how tired he looks. The run-in with his mother had a long-lasting effect on him, like the last time. It’s worse this time because she sought him out in person. “I won’t let her bother you ever again,” I tell him. “Let’s go inside and talk there.”

The inside of the little house is spacious and surprisingly well-built, but everything is dusty, the furniture obviously ancient and run down, and it looks like there is some water damage from the last couple of thunderstorms. The worst is the kitchen. Nowthatcould do with a face-lift.

But all in all, this place has a charm to it, much more than I expected it to have, and a lot of potential.

“How majorly did I fuck up?” Noel asks.