Page 72 of Nineteen Seventy-Six

“No, it’s not fine.” Cassie reached through the blanket and squeezed Evangeline’s ankle. “It’s not fine, and that’s the problem.”

“I don’t like problems that come without solutions, Cassie. Never have. I can’t live in a world where there aren’t answers.”

“It’s why we love science,” Cassie said. “But maybe there are answers… maybe they’re just not the ones we thought.”

Searchlights beaming back and forth outside drove them both into momentary, breathless silence. They were just outside the apartment, down on the ground. Evangeline and Cassie passed a shared terror between their gazes. Is he here?

But then they were gone again, moved on. No further instruction, no news, just a drive-through that stopped the hearts of everything nearby.

“I’m leaving here,” Cassie blurted. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while.”

Evangeline sighed. “I know. I’ve known for a long time. Quantico, right?”

“I applied, and they want me to come down in the spring for an interview. I have to pass a ton of background checks on me, my father, my cousin I haven’t seen since I was running around in diapers.” She cracked a smile. “But I want to do good. What’s happening here in Cambridge is horrible, and if I can be a part of preventing it… of helping create systems that make it harder for these monsters to do what they do… that’s how I’ll survive, Evangeline. That’s how I’ll break free of the prison.”

Evangeline pulled her blanket tighter around her neck.

“Come with me,” Cassie said, growing excited. She rolled forward. “Come with me, Evie. We can do it together.”

Evangeline shook her head. She didn’t need to think about this, despite how painful it would be to say goodbye to her only true friend. She didn’t belong in law enforcement. She was a scientist. “I want to stop it, too, but there’s more than one way. There’s still so little we know about the human brain.”

Cassie clasped her hands around Evangeline’s. “You’re right.”

“But there’s more,” Evangeline said. She didn’t know she’d been slowly coming to this, for months. She didn’t know, even as she saw the smiling faces of women who’d been raped, and then murdered. She didn’t know, even when she met one of the survivors, through the work she and Cassie did as volunteers. “The ones who live. They need to know they’re not alone.”

Cassie nodded, listening.

“I want to find a way to work with them. To help them see that there are many ways to survive something terrible, and that there is a way forward.”

“I want that, too.” Evangeline couldn’t see her face, but she could hear Cassie crying.

“I always wondered, you know, what I’d do with all the family money. I have no use for money, not the kind in my trust fund anyway, but I could start a foundation… a safe place for women who’ve been raped and don’t know where to go next, or don’t have anyone in their lives who understands their pain.”

“We can,” Cassie said. She sniffed. “Together. Even if I’m there and you’re here. Virginia isn’t so far away. Maybe we met for a reason, Evie. Maybe more than just us both needing a friend, we needed a partner for something bigger.”

“I don’t want to be in this prison anymore,” Evangeline said, because she needed to hear her voice say the words aloud to believe them. “I want to break out. I want to help others break out.”

“So sayeth us both,” Cassie whispered and nuzzled her face into the side of Evangeline’s neck, both falling quiet as the police again came on the bullhorns to remind them to stay inside, bolt the doors, and kill the lights.

“You can’t just disinherit your son.”

“I didn’t use the word disinherit. You did.”

“I used the word,” Colin replied, a careful edge to his voice, “because that’s effectively what you’re describing, Charles.”

Charles snorted. “I simply want to get rid of a tradition that’s outdated and boring. Why does it have to be the son who inherits everything? And why just one heir?”

Colin leaned forward, spreading his forearms over his desk. “Nicolas isn’t the heir because he’s a boy. He’s heir because he’s the oldest.” He pointed at a thick file, punching the manila cover with his finger. “And let’s not forget, the estate has never forgotten the siblings of an heir. Look at what your own sisters and brother received. Millions, Charles. The heir doesn’t get it all. The heir is a designation. A way of assigning lead, and having someone who is always in a position to guide with authority.”

“And we’ve done it that way, why, Colin? Remind me? Because it’s what we’ve always done?”

“Charles, Lisette hasn’t even given birth! Why are we talking about this?”

Charles crossed his arms. “I never liked tradition. What’s the point?”

“A lot of people see the point in tradition. Tradition guides the world. It has most certainly guided your family.”

“And now, I’d like to change that tradition.”

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