looking at something that was not there.

He said my name. Halle.

My mother came up behind him. And then her eyes went past me to Leo.

Nobody said anything. Ten years standing in a doorway in the amount of time it takes to breathe out.

And then I said: I need to tell you the truth.

My father’s face went tight.

I said: about Leo.

My mother’s hand went over her mouth.

And I said: and about why I couldn’t get rid of him.

PART 3

When I said I could not tell them, at nineteen, I was not protecting a man.

I was keeping a promise to their son.

My brother Rhys was twenty-two when he got his diagnosis.

He kept it from our parents for eight months. I was the only person on this earth who knew, and I only knew because I found a