"You're avoiding me," Joel asserts later that afternoon, approaching me as I'm curled up on the guest bed with a book in my hands.

I glance up at him, swallowing my anxiety. "What do you mean? No, I'm not."

He clenches his jaw, reading my face and body language for a few seconds. "You're a terrible liar, Vi. You handed me back my phone and disappeared two hours ago. Did the chief say something to you? Did I do something wrong?"

"It's nothing," I insist, staring down at my novel. It's a self-help book about yoga that I swiped off Mallory's shelf, but I really couldn't tell you much more than that. I've been reading it, but the words haven't really stuck with me.

"It's not just nothing," he says, sitting down beside me on the mattress and gently prying the paperback from my fingers. "Tell me what's going on with you. Remember what we said about being honest with one another?"

"Just leave it be, Joel," I plead, my voice coming out less assertive than I'd like. "I just needed some space."

"Sure," he grumbles.

"Please don't be mad at me," I say. "I have a lot on my mind."

He gets up and turns to go. "Fine."

"Joel, stop!" I call out. "This whole thing is such a mess. It's really hard for me to feel like I can trust anyone right now. That's what's bothering me. That's why I'm... that's why I'm up here."

He turns, releasing the knob, brows furrowed at me. "You can trust me, Vi."

"Can I though?" I wipe my sweaty hands on my jeans.

He flinches as if I've just slapped him. "Are you serious right now?"

I don't know what to say to that.

"After everything we've been through, you don't think you can trust me? What are we doing, Vi? Why would I bother taking you here and trying to keep you safe if I had any intention of hurting you?"

His green eyes are locked on mine, his fingers closed around my wrist.

"Tell me what he said to you, Vi," Joel demands. "Tell me what he said to make you doubt me for a second."

"He said the people doing this are probably close to me," I say, my voice cracking. "He said the timeline, between you moving here and the hack, matched up. And I don't believe it, but that doesn't mean I'm not utterly freaked out."

He takes me in his arms and runs a hand through my hair, trying to comfort me. "I'm sorry for snapping at you. If anything, I should be angry with Chief. He should know me better than that. He never should've planted that seed."

"I basically accused you of betraying me," I remind him. "I wouldn't blame you if you were at least a little irritated."

"I don't want to fight with you," he says. "I don't know what to do. I'm terrified right now, Vi. Everything we know could be destroyed. I want to keep you safe, I want to make sure nothing bad ever happens to you, but there's so much that's uncertain right now. I don't know where to go from here."

"Maybe we should try contacting them," I suggest. "I know it sounds crazy, but maybe we could bait them?"

"We could get you and me murdered in the process," he counters. "Absolutely not."

"Look, I don't know what to do. It's not like we're swimming in options here, Joel."

"I can figure this out," he tries to assure me. "Chief will find them and end this. And then we can go back to business as usual."

"What if that never happens?" I cross my arms over my chest. "What happens if they come here looking for us and Avalon and Daniel get hurt in the process?"

His expression shifts to an emotion I can't quite identify. "You're right. God, Vi, I hate to say it, but you're right. I don't think we should stay any longer."

"What do we tell Mallory?" I ask.

"Just that we're going to visit your mom," he says. "She'll understand. We can stay for dinner and have more time with the kids before we leave."

"I'm sorry for dragging you into this," I tell him, looking down at my feet. "I just wish you could've gotten away from me."

He kisses my temple, speaking against my skin. "That's fate, sweetheart, it doesn't make sense and sometimes it's messy and horrible, but it's nothing we can stop. We can't keep it from happening, no matter how much you and I would like to. If there's a will, there's a way."

"I don't want to lose you," I say, trying not to cry. It seems like all I can do now is cry. But I feel like anyone in my position would. It's impossible to be strong all the time, to pretend it's all okay when the world is crashing down around you and there's no hope of you escaping the fallout.

"You won't," he promises.

A few minutes later, the front door unlocks and Avalon and Daniel's voices fill the silence downstairs. Joel heads down first, his hand holding mine as we step into the hall.

"How was school?" he asks them, slapping on a smile I know is probably forced.

"Boring," Avalon reports. "My teacher was absent in homeroom and in math so we had this sub who barely spoke English and kept yelling at us for no reason."

"I had a good day," Daniel says smugly. "Julia Tippens wore a low-cut shirt, and she looked totally hot, but our teacher made her wear her sweatshirt in class."

Joel rolls his eyes. "You are way too young to think girls are hot."

"Don't you think your girlfriend is hot?" Daniel counters.

Joel chuckles, stealing a glance at me. "Well, obviously, but it's different for me because she's my girlfriend and we're both adults."

"Daniel thinks he's an adult." Avalon narrows her eyes at him. "But in reality, he's just a stupid boy."

"Shut up, Avalon, no one asked you," he pouts.

"This is America," she quips. "In America, I have a right to freedom of speech."

"Technically you don't really have your rights until you're eighteen," Daniel sneers back at her.

"Technically you're an idiot," she retorts.

"Bite me," he snaps.

"Gladly." She glares.

Joel steps between them, holding back his laughter. "Alright, you two. Try not to kill each other on my watch or your mom will kill me."

Soon enough, it's dinner time again. We're all seated at a table eating a pizza Mallory ordered because she ended up burning the casserole in the oven. Daniel and Avalon have, unsurprisingly, gone to war over the last slice of cheese pizza because Avalon decided that morning she was going vegetarian and Daniel is looking for ways to irritate her.

"You're not even a real vegetarian," he accuses as he victoriously munches on his slice. "You just want to be because you think Johnny Sanchez is cute and want to impress him."

Avalon reluctantly picks pepperoni off the slice in her hand and gives him a look made of poison. "I really don't like you sometimes."

He shrugs. "Believe me, I feel the same."

"Remember when we used to fight like that?" Joel says to Mal.

"Yeah. And then after dinner, I'd beat you up when Mom and Dad weren't looking," she muses.

"Up until I got taller than you," he reminds her.

"You're not that much taller than me," she argues.

"I'm easily half a foot taller," he says.

"You are not!" she exclaims.

He nods. "I'm six foot one."

"I'm five-six in heels!" she shoots back.

"High heels are just glorified cheating for the short people who wear them." Joel smirks, obviously enjoying getting a rise out of her.

"I'm taller than Vi is," she says.

Joel and Mallory fall into more bickering. It's actually sort of amusing to watch, like a grown-up version of Avalon and Daniel. They're being so disruptive that both of the kids have stopped yelling at each other to witness.

Avalon nudges me. "Is Mom really taller than you?"

"By an inch or two," I say, wiping my fingers on a napkin. "I don't think that detail is consequential in the grand scheme of things."

After a few more minutes of mindless squabbling, Joel concedes and starts to clear the table. "I rest my case, Mal. I'll let you have this one."

She smiles victoriously and ruffles Daniel's hair on her way into the kitchen. After the table is vacant and scrubbed down, Avalon is working on the dishes, splashing her brother at every opportunity as he dries them.

Joel puts his hand on my shoulder. "You ready to leave yet?" he asks.

I take a look around the kitchen, at the harmonized way they interact with one another, and know that I don't want to leave. The last thing I want is to leave. I want to stay like this forever and have a family just like this, but even I know that will never happen. The fact of the matter is that we have to go.

"Yeah," I say reluctantly. "Everything packed?"

"I took it out to the car. Mal contributed a bag of some of her old clothes for you, by the way. She's really taken a liking to you."

My cheeks warm as he laces his fingers through mine fluidly, like the act of holding my hand comes to him naturally. Mal is waiting by the door, ready to give me a huge hug before we go.

"It was so lovely meeting you!" she gushes. "You absolutely have to come visit soon. I want full details when he proposes, Vi."

I laugh a little when I see that Joel is the one a little red in the cheeks this time.

Daniel and Avalon exchange hugs with each of us respectively. Thankfully, neither of them touch my skin directly, and all visions are averted. It's obvious that they're both going to miss Joel dearly as they embrace him. A guilty pang spreads through my chest at the knowledge that this could very well be the last time they see him.

"You're pretty cool," says Daniel. "Uncle Joel is lucky."

This lightens my mood. "You're not too bad yourself, kiddo."

"Love you, sis," Joel says.

Mal kisses him on the cheek. "Love you too, little brother. Be safe out there. The rain's been coming down pretty hard lately."

It's only sprinkling when we're getting in the car, but the water is so cold it cuts into me like ice. Joel wastes no time in cranking up the heat before he turns the key in the ignition. As we're driving away, I catch a glimpse of them standing on the porch waving after us before they disappear from view.

"Your family is amazing, Joel," I tell him.

"They have their moments," he says. "But yeah, they are."

"You'd be an amazing dad," I add.

"I've never given it much thought, really," he admits, surprising me. "On the one hand, I think it would be great to be a father, but in my line of work, I've learned that having a family might not be the best. I'm gone all the time, I work all the time. It just doesn't seem right to have kids that I don't spend enough time with."

I consider this for a moment. "It's a fair point. I know that I wouldn't want to be a mom because of whatever is wrong with me. It scares me to think that I could pass it on to someone else. So I try my best not to think about it and hope that I never have to experience that reality."

"I think you'd be a good mother, for what it's worth," he says.

"You do?"

"Absolutely. You've got this big heart, and you're so selfless and incredible. Why wouldn't you be?"

I wish I could see myself the way Joel sees me. He thinks I'm a good person, a soul worth saving. I want to be that woman. I want to feel like that woman.

"So where to, Vi?" he continues. "Want to head to your mom's? We can always get a motel room for the night. Whatever you want, I'll do."

"Let's just get a room, I'll let my mom know we're coming tomorrow morning. I'll call her later," I decide. "Thank you, for being here. I'd probably have gone crazy by now if you hadn't been with me."

"Then I'm glad to have kept you sane," he says.

That comment should come out like a joke, carrying humor with it. It doesn't. He won't admit it, but I know he's off. There's something in the way his shoulders have slumped, the defeated look spreading in his green eyes. Something is wrong.

Joel Reed is running out of hope.