How dare you.
It was like Miles knew her words stung me. His fingers tightened on my shoulder. “Liza, drop it,” he said. “We need to focus on our plan for tomorrow night.”
“Great. Well, Eli will be here soon. He’s getting discharged today. And I called Patrick. He’s meeting us here in about an hour.”
“My Patrick?” Kins asked.
“What other Patrick?”
“But he doesn’t know about any of this. He never believed me when I said Summer was good. He…”
“I explained it all to him. He’s all caught up. We need as much help as we can get tomorrow night. We’re bringing in everyone we have. Including Dr. Miller.” She almost whispered the last sentence as she avoided eye contact with me.
“My therapist?” I asked.
“Apparently Miles’ too,” Liza said. “Besides, I think it would be good if you two both chatted with him at the same time. Sorted out all your inner demons and all that so we can go into our planning with clear heads. Dr. Miller will be here any second.”
“We don’t need therapy,” Miles said. “We’re fine.”
I didn’t say anything.
“Right?” he asked me.
I didn’t get a chance to respond because there was a knock on our entrance window.
Miles looked up. “Why isn’t Athena alerting us that he’s here?”
“Oh, I had a fun night too,” she said and winked at me. “Our whole place was bugged and I had to do a sweep.”
I had completely forgotten that Don had said he had been watching me.
“Our apartment was basically infested.” Liza laughed at her own joke. “Athena’s been compromised so I shut her down.”
“When the hell did that happen?” Miles asked.
“I think it’s been going on for awhile. Your glamorous system has been selling us out. She was the leak that let Don know we were onto his plans in that theater. This time, there won’t be a leak. We’re finally going to get him. I’ll go let Dr. Miller in. And don’t freak out, he’s not actually staying for the meeting later. He’s a doctor after all. I know that he knows that Miles is V. But the less he knows about what we actually do here, the better. Agreed? Agreed.” She walked out into the hall.
“Why did Patrick believe her when he wouldn’t believe me?” Kins said. “Maybe we’re the couple that needs therapy. I need to go call him.” She walked past us out of the kitchen.
“You don’t think we’re fine?” Miles asked once she disappeared.
“I think that I want to remember the past but still be happy with you now.”
“That sounds like a splendid idea,” Dr. Miller said as he appeared in the kitchen. “It’s nice to see that you’re both not wearing any disguises.” He smiled and sat down at the kitchen table. “I was told we had some time to talk if you don’t mind taking a seat.”
Neither Miles nor I moved.
Dr. Miller gestured to the seats in front of him. “Just for a few minutes.”
I sat down and Miles slowly joined us.
“Do you mind if I speak candidly?” Dr. Miller asked. He didn’t wait for us to respond, he just started talking. “Miles, you’ve been haunted by the memory of this woman for years.” He nodded toward me. “And I know that there was a lot of pain. Clearly secrets and other hurts. It’s easy to throw blame around. But as I understand it, you were both placed in a terrible situation. One that would have been hard for even adults to face. And as children, you both held on to hope. That’s remarkable by itself.
“You both tried your best to cope in different ways. You both made mistakes. You both let each other down. Yet you somehow kept fighting for this.” He gestured back and forth between us. “Find a way to let go of the pain. If you can somehow do that together, then I think you two will make it. Please just don’t let your past hurts cause future ones. You love each other, that’s all that matters.” He tapped the table with his knuckles. “Is there anything that either one of you needs to say?”
“How do you recommend letting it go?” I asked.
“You could write down everything that hurt you, and then burn it or throw it out. Even exercise is a great way to release pent-up anger and aggression. Or you could just talk it out. Right here, right now.”