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I look toward Oliver’s room. “Can I talk to him?”

“I want my dolls to learn how to keep each other company.”

I don’t like being placed beside him inside that sentence. “That’s why you’re leaving me awake.”

“That’s one reason.”

I want the others.

Heather doesn’t give them to me.

I stand. She lets me cross to the doorway and look into the hall. The stairs lead down to the kitchen, the living room, and the front door with its three deadbolts. The playroom is down there too. Her dollhouse. Her things. She’s leaving all of it with me.

Oliver’s door remains closed.

“Can I let him out?”

Heather comes up behind me. “Do you think he’s earned that?”

I look at his door. “No.”

Heather’s hand settles on the back of my neck. “Good boy.”

I nearly forget Oliver exists. “What happens if I try anyway?”

“You’ll prove I was wrong about you.”

I turn around. The thought is unbearable. “You’re not.”

“I know.”

Heather pushes her fingers into my hair, closes them near the roots, and tips my face where she wants it. Her kiss is firm and brief. A seal pressed onto something that already belongs to her.

I hold her waist carefully. I wait to see if I’m allowed. She leaves my hands there.

“Where are you going?”

“To bring home Simon.”

My fingers tighten before I can stop them. For a moment, I wish the pill were still on the nightstand.

I see Heather preparing another room. Undressing another man. Naming him. Touching him until his body starts answering before the rest of him does. I see her passing my door to reach his.

Oliver gets a locked door. Simon gets drugged and carried home. I get trusted.

For one ugly second, I want her to tell me Simon won’t be as pretty. That she hasn’t watched him as long. That whatever she wants from him won’t feel as good as what she takes from me.

“What do you want me to do?” I ask.

Heather’s mouth curves. “Show me what you do with your freedom.”

It shouldn’t sound like an order. It does.

“And when you come back?”

“You’ll help me put Simon where he belongs.”

I see it immediately. Heather bringing him through the front door half-conscious. Me waiting inside, dressed and awake. “I’ll be ready.”