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What are you doing, Hassan?

I don’t really know.

He finally says, simply, “Hi. I’m Jordan.”

She looks up at him. She seems a little confused at first, buta second later she smiles and pushes aside the article she’s been reading. He sees, with a start, that it’s about muons, the subatomic particles Hannah mentioned when he first met her.

“Do those things really break the laws of physics?” he blurts.

She pulls the chopstick out of her hair, and it spills in dark waves down her back. “I’m Ellie,” she says, “and no.”

He notices that her eyes are a clear, lovely gray. “They don’t?”

Her smile grows wider. “Well, okay, muons appear to violateknownlaws. The currentlyacceptedlaws. But if it can be broken, then it’s not really a law, is it?”

“All kinds of laws get broken,” Jordan says. He thinks of Cayden, Belman’s resident arsonist, and Amelia, the thief. They were sent to the hospital in lieu of juvenile detention or jail.

“The laws of physics are totally different from human laws, because human laws aredecisions,” Ellie says. “They aren’t facts.”

Jordan nods. “Okay, so for example, there could be a country where murder was legal—”

“But there couldn’t be a country where gravity doesn’t exist.” Ellie finishes his sentence.

“What about the multiverse?” Jordan asks. “Is that a thing? And does anyone think that time travel’s really possible?”

Ellie laughs. “This is absolutely the weirdest first conversation I’ve ever had with someone. Do you want to go get a drink and see how much weirder it can get?”

Yes. Yes, he definitely would.

CHAPTER 84

Dr. Ager has read through everyone’s charts and files and records by now, and she’s noticed something different about Hannah’s treatment.

No one is paying for it.

Health insurance companies pay out big for ICU visits, ER physicians, and surgeries. But they don’t like loosening the purse strings for psychological treatments. So every single dollar in revenue matters, even at a private, endowed hospital like Belman.

Dr. Ager pushes her glasses up onto the top of her head and gazes around at the gathered staff.

Why, she wants to know, when there are so many young people in need of care, does one person in particular gobble up so much of Ward 6’s resources?

She doesn’t even have to say Hannah’s name. Everyone knows who she’s talking about.

Nurse Amy takes this question, leaning forward with an ingratiating look on her face. She says she knows it’s weird—anomalous, she corrects herself—but that’s how it’s been for years. “Delia Belman’s granddaughter took a special interest in Hannah,” sheexplains. “She stipulated that care should be extended to her, without expectation of reimbursement.”

Jordan looks at Amy like,Where did all those big words come from?But the fact is that everyone is trying to impress Dr. Ager, who has been carefully monitoring staff dedication and performance.

“And has she seen the amount of resources that this particular client uses?” Dr. Ager asks. She always saysclientinstead ofpatient. That orservice user.

“I don’t imagine she’s looked at the numbers,” Amy says.

“Well, she will,” Dr. Ager replies.

“Hannah has no resources herself.”

Dr. Ager nods. “As I assumed. But the majority of people with mental illness get neither treatment nor medication. She isn’t the only young woman in New York who needs help. The world is full of Hannahs.”

No it isn’t, Jordan thinks.There’s never been anyone like her.