Chapter 27. One Room, One Bed

Rae POV

I lasted forty minutes alone in that room.

I showered. I turned on the TV and turned it off. I lay on top of the bedspread in a T-shirt and a pair of flannel shorts and stared at the water stain on the ceiling, and every time I closed my eyes I saw a number with a dollar sign in front of it, and my father's face, and the words one way or the other.

And through the wall, I could hear him.

Not doing anything. Just there. The creak of the bed when he shifted. A long breath out. His heartbeat, slow and heavy, the way it always was when he was trying very hard to be still.

He wasn't asleep either.

I got up, opened my door, crossed the six feet of hallway carpet, and knocked on his.

It opened before my hand ha