ALPHA DOM AND HIS HUMAN SURROGATE

dy m

ant, who was typing something in the corner when I walked in, has her fingers

and closes the door behind him. The click

other man feels like a problem I'm not ready to

Dr. Maddox's silenc

y. "Mr. Sinclair was already aware of the situa

t for exactly

say. "About my body. About

Nav

nd up. My legs are steady, which su

air. I close the bathroom door, run cold water over my w

y hard at neutral. I know this woman. I've seen her in worse moments than this. The night her mother stopped breathing. The morning she read those texts.

standing. S

ell her qui

ands and g

lair has tak

nees, leaning forward slightly, and the position should look casual but on him it just looks like barely

e remaining chair, angle it so we're

derstanding of the situat

between storage units three weeks before my procedure. Two vials were mislabeled. The audit caug

errupting right now would cost m

speaks for the first tim

oice that expects to be heard without raising itself. "I want

ok a

's threatening exactly, but because he has the quality of something that doesn

I say, "is in

es

that should be established

e spent six years reading faces in emergency rooms where people are too scared or too prou

that, Ms. Nava

at decisions about my pregnancy

kes a small,

ds my gaze for a mom

hat. I keep my fa

fe, and I once worked a twelve-hour shift on New Yea

arently already in process on Dominic's end. Legal mediation. A counselor they have on retainer

hind my sternum like water against a cracked wall. I ask about the timeline of the error. I ask about the

s with an attention that I feel on th

se, he says, "What

at him.

nancy. What do

him. After an hour of legal language and procedural framing, someone is asking

I can shape them into something more composed. Ra

Like that sett

gure out the r

hen it involves a man like this. But I note, somewhere in the back of my mi

phone is already at his ear before he clears the doo

keepi

p wal

sking me wh

k to someone who alr

n the middle of that clinic hallway with the cold coming ba

her end of that call, this w

een waiting f