Chapter 13: “They're Watching”

The hospital rooftop was nearly empty, save for two paper coffee cups and the silence between them.

Cara leaned on the ledge, wind tugging at her hair. Across from her, Eliot sat with his eyes closed, face tilted toward the sky, like he was trying to remember what it felt like to just… exist.

"You always come up here when you're lost," she said.

"I always come up here when I want to disappear," he replied.

Neither of them laughed.

Cara took a sip of her lukewarm coffee, then set it down. "I got pulled into a quiet meeting yesterday. Internal Review."

Eliot didn't react, but she saw the flicker behind his eyes.

"They're not saying it out loud yet, but they're circling. Daniel Park didn't let it go. He requested records. He connected your name to the pattern."

Eliot turned away. "How long before they say it out loud?"

"Could be days. Could be one more family asking the wrong question."

He was quiet for a long moment. "Did you tell them?"

She looked at him—really looked.

The man who once lit up rooms with tired jokes and gentle sarcasm. The man who used to bring donuts on shift changes, just to make people smile. The man who ended lives with steady hands and a breaking heart.

"No," she said. "Not yet."

He exhaled, slowly.

"Why?"

"Because… I still don't know if what you did was evil," Cara said. "But I know it was real. And I don't think you ever wanted to hurt anyone."

"I didn't," he whispered. "But that doesn't mean I didn't."

The wind picked up, and with it, a strange kind of quiet understanding settled between them.

Cara stepped closer.

"If you have anything left to make peace with," she said, "do it now."

He looked at her, brow furrowed.

"Before the choice is taken from you," she finished.

And then she left him on the rooftop—staring down at a city that no longer looked like home.

---

End of Chapter 13.

---