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“Okay.”

He turns on his heel, and I’m three seconds from calling out to him when he turns back, looking strangely lighter. “Oh, and also…Anton Andrews.”

My nose wrinkles as I’m caught off guard. “What?”

He doesn’t answer, just flashes me one last sweet smile, before he leaves me standing in my open door, more lost than I’ve ever been.

But what’s more, I feel surprisingly hopeful for the first time in days.

Even if I have no idea why.

•••

It takes mebarely twenty minutes to find everything I need to know about Anton Andrews. Twenty-nine years old, no outstanding debt…So far, I haven’t come across anything that would lead Ezra to believe it’s a name I should be looking into. It has to beimportant, Ezra wouldn’t have mentioned him otherwise, but at first glance, I just can’t seem to determine why. The name sounds familiar, nagging at the back of my brain, but I can’t seem to grasp it.

I haven’t allowed myself to think about everything else he said, because I know if I start down that road, I’ll get lost on it. I tell myself that it’s something I will face after this trial. After that there is nothing else between us either way. After that…no matter what happens, I won’t have any more excuses not to face the things I’m actively avoiding.

Things like how much it hurts to think about never seeing Ezra again. How devastating a possibility it is that he might never smile at me like he did today ever again. I know that the answer is there, staring me in the face, but I stubbornly push it aside, just like I do everything else.

I push a stack of Bianca’s financial statements for her trust away so I can reach a folder I’m hunting for; it’s the last bit we were able to find in Bianca’s storage, mostly concerning the transfer of the funds from Italy to the United States—and while I’m sure it will yield as little as all the ones I’ve already looked at, I want to be able to say I’ve exhausted every option. I jolt when my phone rings, causing me to knock the entire stack onto the floor, and papers scatter everywhere.

“Fuck,” I mutter.

Ignoring the mess, I snatch up my phone and bring it to my ear. “Yeah?”

“So I’m still on my stakeout,” Nate tells me. “And you’ll never guess what I’ve found.”

I breathe out a sigh. “You know you’re not a detective, right? Only you would waste your time on this.”

“Hey! Vera is here too.”

“I refuse to believe that.”

There’s a moment of silence before: “Um, I didn’t have anything else to do today.”

“Damn it, Vera,” I groan. “You’re supposed to be the smart one.”

“Are you saying I’m not smart?” Nate huffs.

“I’m assuming you called for a reason,” I venture, kneeling on my living room floor so that I can start gathering the strewn documents. “Or did you need coffee and doughnuts?”

“I’m starting to think I shouldn’t even tell you my amazing news,” Nate practicallyhmphs. “You’re being awfully testy.”

“We’re due back in court intwodays, I have nothing concrete yet, and now Ez—” I press my lips together. “I’m just a little stressed, okay?”

I should have known Nate wasn’t going to let it slide. “Did you say Ezra? What’s wrong with Ezra?”

“Nothing is wrong with Ezra,” I mumble. “Forget I said anything.”

Vera’s voice nears the phone, like she’s pulling it away from Nate. “Do I need to kick someone’s ass?”

Yeah,I think bitterly.Mine.

“Never mind that.” I sweep papers into a pile. “Tell me why you called.”

“So we’re outside the mistress’s rental property, right? And at first, I thought it was vacant. It’s so…tidy. There’s no lawn furniture, or signs, or outdoor rugs…nothing.”

“So is it vacant?”