Page 113 of From Air

I’m not sure I’m ready for this. If he doesn’t recognize her, all will be right in my world again. If he does ... well, I don’t know what I will feel. I’ve tried to imagine it, but I can’t.

I hold up the picture of my mom.

Dwight doesn’t have an immediate reaction. He studies it, taking the phone from me. “She looks so blissful.”

The photo was taken on the day I graduated from nursing school.

“Do you recognize her?”

After inspecting the photo for a few more seconds, he glances up at me. “Of course. It’s Samantha. Did you talk to her? Is she coming to visit me?”

I think I knew, but it still didn’t prepare me for this moment. The noose tightens around my neck. Swallowing past the suffocation, I clear my throat. “Are you sure it’s her?”

He scoffs, returning my phone. “She’s my sister. Of course I know it’s her.” He curls his lips and taps his front tooth. “She has a crown on that tooth. Broke it in half when she fell off her bike.”

Jesus Christ . . .

“Yeah, s-she told me that.”

He stands and heads to the door. “Tell her to come see me.”

Just as I enter my apartment building after work, Fitz calls me.

“Hey.” I make my way down the hall, eyeing the door where the incident happened as I pass it.

“Halloween party at Gary and Evette’s on the thirty-first. Can you make it?”

“Uh ...” I switch to speaker and peek at my schedule. “I work the thirtieth, but I could try to get a flight late that night or early the next morning. The question is, Canyoumake it—or Gary, for that matter?”

“All we can do is try. We might get an early snow.”

I open my apartment door and lob my bag on the counter.

“You still there?” he asks.

“Yeah. Do you remember what I told you about the patient I thought could be my uncle?”

“Yes.”

I toss my phone onto the bed and retrievethe boxbeside the washer and dryer. “Well, I think it was confirmed today that he is, in fact, my uncle. I showed him a photo of my mom, and he recognized her. He even knew about her crown on the tooth that broke when she fell off her bike.” I rip the tape off the box. “But now I wonder, Why did she lie to me?”

“Jaymes, speaking from experience, people lie about their past to prevent pain. Pain to themselves or pain to other people.” Fitz leaks his past to me one morsel at a time.

I sit on the bed next to the box and deflate. “I know. She was probably embarrassed that her brother was in a mental hospital. Still, changing her name? That seems a little excessive. He’s in California. We were in Florida. Wasn’t distance enough?”

“Did he commit a crime?”

“Yes.”

“Then perhaps she didn’t want to be part of the publicity. What did he do?”

“I’d rather not say yet. I think I’ve already crossed a line by giving Melissa so much information about him.”

“That’s fair. How are you feeling?”

I can’t help but smile. “Physically? I’m feeling so much better. No surgery is needed for my nose. The swelling is gone. And I can hide most of the residual bruising with makeup.”

And my uncle started a fire ... the kind you must risk your life to extinguish.

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