Marcus. He exhaled. I'm a single father. Everything I do in the morning is for someone else. That's not a complaint.
It's just that's what it is. I know, she said. But you're also a person. I know that. Do you?
She said it plainly, not an accusation, almost gently, which was somehow worse. Because you looked at me yesterday like no one had ever said that to you before. The train rocked slightly on the track. Marcus looked away from her. I have a system, he said.
The system works. Sure, Emily said. But does the man running the system work? He didn't answer. She didn't push, but she raised the camera and before he could object took a photograph.
He turned sharply. She was already lowering it, a small unrepentant expression on her face. Emily, you weren't performing, she said simply. That's the point. Delete it.
Absolutely not. I'm serious. I know. She tucked the camera against her chest. So am I.
He stared at her for a moment. She looked back at him with exactly the kind of calm that drove men like Marcus men who needed to be in control, who had built control into a survival mechanism completely sideways. He wasn't used to people who didn't back down from him. He wasn't used to people who found his resistance interesting. Instead of intimidating ou she looked back out the window.
Probably 3 days later she was gone. No text, no warning, no explanation. She just wasn't on the train. Marcus got on at 6:15. Sat in his seat.
Watched every door opening until Back Bay and Emily Carter didn't appear. He told himself it was nothing. People missed the train. People got sick. People had appointments, emergencies, reasons.
It was one morning, but the next morning she wasn't there either. And the morning after that, by the fourth day, Marcus was doing something he hadn't done in years. He was distracted at work in a way he couldn't attribute to grief, couldn't chalk up to exhaustion, couldn't fold into the system and process and set aside. He was distracted because he was worried. and worry in Marcus' life had always been reserved for two categories, Amara and Amara's future. He had no framework for worrying about anyone else.