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Alicia and I ducked left and right, but no matter which way we went, we couldn’t see a staircase anywhere. At the end of a long corridor, past a row of stylish executive offices, we sprinted up a metal staircase.
“No,” I said. “No, no, no. This goes to the roof!” But a shot rang out behind us, and we had no choice but to sprint up it, hearing our shoes clang on the metal surface.
When we burst out of the door, we were on the roof of CAA. Six stories up, with nowhere to go. Alicia and I sprinted across the rooftop. Our only hope was to get down onto the lower level of the roof. From there, we might find a fire escape or some other way to get down from the building. Up here, the wind whipped against our cheeks. It was going to be difficult not to be blown off the surface.
I hadn’t had a chance to check on Alicia, but now I saw that she was all right, aside from a few bruises.
“Dr. Knightly,” she said, breathing hard as we stood at the edge, looking for a vantage point. “She’s the one … she … she’s the stalker.”
“I know,” I said.
“You do? How?”
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. Maybe if I’d confessed it all then, it would have made a difference.
I looked down. There was no way onto the lower level, where the glass dome of the CAA hall was being set up for the meeting. Already, crowds of people in suits were filing in for a meeting to oust me. Little did they know I was standing on the rooftop, fifty feet above them.
“That’s enough!” said a voice.
It was Dr. Knightly. The wind had dislodged her hair from its ponytail, making her look even crazier. She had the gun in both hands, one foot in front of the other.
“You think you can trust him, Alicia?” she said. “You sure you wanna side with him?!”
I looked at her. She looked at me. “I’m staying by his side,” said Alicia. “No matter what.”
Dr. Knightly laughed. “You still haven’t figured it out, have you.”
“Why do you have a crazy vendetta against Jake? No. No, I haven’t. After all, it’s not like he’s ever done anything to you. He might have made mistakes in the past, but that doesn’t give you any excuse to hurt him.”
“Don’t, Patricia” I said weakly. “Please.”
“How do you know her, Jake?” asked Alicia.
”IlovedJake,“ said Patricia. Her words hung on the wind for a moment before they were carried away into the distance.
“What?” asked Alicia quietly.
“I loved him,” said Patricia, “and when I got pregnant, I thought it would make him happy.”
I looked at her, then at Alicia. She seemed frozen like the words Patricia spoke had paralyzed her.
“But when it didn’t,” said Patricia, “I still loved him. So, I gave away my baby. His firstborn son. Now neither of us will ever know him,” she said. “And then, he had the nerve toleaveme.”
“Her?” said Alicia. “She was the mother of your …”
“That’s not entirely true, is it, Patricia?” I said. “I never told you I loved you. And I never told you to give him up. I only said that I couldn’t be a father. That didn’t mean I didn’t want to help, I just—“
“You just what?” said, Patricia. “You just thought you could throw me away, pawn me off with some of your cash?”
“I didn’t want it to be like that,” I replied. “But you gave me no choice. Showing up at my apartment in the middle of the night, harassing my staff. I helped you get set up in Chicago at the clinic.”
“LIES!” said Patricia, aiming the gun. I could see the barrel of it was trembling as her hands shook with emotion.
“I’m not lying,” I said, only so Alicia could hear. “What she said is partially true. She and I had a child together. It was three years ago. I’ve tried to forget about it every day. And I tried to make it easier for her. I wanted us to be friends, I just—“
“Just what?” said Alicia. There were tears in her eyes, and she looked like I’d never seen her before. Pale and trembling, she seemed to have been hollowed out from within.
“Just what?” repeated Alicia. “You didn’t tell me?”
