A cold shiver worked its way up my spine. I pressed deeper against him without thinking about it, needing the pressure of his body there.
Because honestly?
If I’d found this out alone, I didn’t know what state I’d be in right now.
People always talked about love like it fixed things. Like it cured anxiety or healed trauma or magically rewired your brain into something functional and well-adjusted.
Absolute bullshit.
My brain was still a hostile work environment.
But the loneliness?
The constant feeling that I was carrying everything by myself while the world quietly pressed down harder and harder every year?
Henry had touched that and somehow made it lighter.
“When the right people help you, it’s easier than it should be,” he said.
My throat felt scraped raw by the time I managed to speak. “So you think it’s possible then? That Otto took Abel?”
“Yes.”
The answer hollowed me out so fast it was as if somebody had reached into my stomach and scooped everything loose from the inside.
“The victim profiles don’t fully match. The boys taken through Ashford were teens. Teens with less oversight once they disappeared internationally.”
“But?”
“But Otto being connected to Ashford is not a fucking coincidence.”
I stared at the yearbook photo again.
My skin crawled so violently I had to fight the urge to scrub my hands against my jeans.
“He could’ve changed after he left,” Henry said. “People escalate. Adapt.”
“How do we know for sure? How do we prove it?”
“I send everything we found to SSA Chen.”
“That’s it?” The chair creaked when I jolted, and if it weren't for his arms, I would've fallen on my ass. “We just wait?”
“Archie.”
“No, seriously. That man has been standing in my fucking yard for years and I’m supposed to just sit here and?—”
“You arenotgoing near him.”
The words came out rough enough to scrape, jaw shifting hard to one side afterward, muscle jumping beneath the skin.
“You are not confronting him. You are not speaking to him alone. You are not stepping foot near that goddamn house unless I’m with you.”
“Henry—”
“No.”
That tone did something terrible to me.
