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"Good. Do you know if my brother is taking a shift?"

"I don't know. Why?"

"He has taken a shift on Thanksgiving for three consecutive years. Three. My mother calls me on Thanksgiving morning upset. Then she calls again after dinner still upset. Then she calls on Friday to tell me she's forgiven him, but she wants me to know she's not happy about it."

I laughed. "I'll see what I can do."

"Would you please?" Erin shook her head. "Maybe this is finally the year he shows up."

"Thank you," I said. "For today, for this week, for all of it."

"Stop." She set the scissors down. "You and Hazel are family. You've been family since before any of this happened. So stop thanking me, because I will start charging you, and my rates are steep."

I pulled my keys from my pocket. "I'll talk to him."

"You have power I don't have. Use it wisely."

Detective Westbrook met us at the courthouse the next day.

The restraining order was holding. Declan had missed the second hearing and forfeited his right to contest. The order stood for a year, covering me, Hazel, our home, her school, and my workplace.

"He has no legal claim to the child." Westbrook turned a page in his file. "His name isn't on the birth certificate. He didn't know she existed until he showed up at the door. Even if he tried to pursue custody, his criminal history and the active restraining order would bury any case before it reached a judge."

"What happens if he violates the order?"

"Mandatory arrest. No discretion, no warning. If he comes near you, Hazel, your home, her school, or your workplace, he's in custody."

"And if I see him? If he's across the street, or in a parking lot, or at the rink?"

"You call 911. You don't approach, you don't engage. You call, you give the location, and you let us handle it."

Westbrook closed the file but didn't stand. "One more thing. We have reason to believe Gallagher has connections to organized crime in Boston. I don't have the full picture yet, but he's not just an ex with a temper. You were right to report him."

We walked to the car. The relief was real and I let myself sit in it for a full minute.

"You alright?" Alex put his hand on my shoulder. The weight of it went through me, and I didn't realize how much I'd been holding until I felt it.

I stepped forward before I could think about it and leaned into his chest. His arms came around me a second later, one hand on my back, the other on my hair.

"Thank you," I said into his chest. "For being here."

His chin rested on the top of my head. We stood there on the sidewalk until I was ready to let go.

I was right. Every choice I'd made since that parking lot, leaving, hiding, keeping Hazel invisible. I was right.

CHAPTER 14

Thanksgiving

ALEX

The restraining order was a piece of paper. It meant Declan couldn't come near them without getting arrested. It didn't mean he wouldn't try.

I thought about it every morning. Checking the street before we left the apartment, scanning the lot at the rink before practice, watching the faces on the sidewalk when I picked Hazel up from Erin's. Westbrook was looking into Declan's connections, and the legal system was doing what it was designed to do, but legal systems operated on rules, and the man who had stood in Janine's doorway didn't strike me as someone who followed them.

Until he was in custody, I wasn't going anywhere.

"I almost didn't set a place for you." My mother was standing in Erin's doorway with her arms crossed.