Chapter 5

I sent Professor Brandt the truth that afternoon.

Pregnant. Recently divorced. Still determined to take the fellowship, but unwilling to hide information relevant to my fieldwork or safety.

His reply arrived before I had finished making tea.

[Congratulations, Katherine. The appointment is yours. Parenthood does not cancel your qualifications.]

He had arranged a family apartment near the institute and asked the occupational-health team to adapt my duties. Dr. Seidel, the obstetrician married to the program's clinical lead, could take over my prenatal care if I wished. A colleague attending a conference in Greyhaven would accompany me on the flight.

I read the message twice, looking for the condition.

There wasn't one.

For weeks I had treated the baby as something I would have to defend. These strangers were offering an extra chair at a table I had already earned a place at.

I wrote back with my hand resting against my stomach.

[Thank you for still seeing the researcher.]

On departure morning, Tessa hugged me outside security and made me promise to send my new address.

"To me," she added. "Nobody else gets it."

At the airline desk, a tall man with a battered leather satchel raised a hand.

"Katherine Stone? Felix Keller. I'm your escort, luggage carrier, and completely unofficial guide to Austrian pastries."

He took my suitcase after asking permission and handed me my boarding pass.

"Professor Brandt says your first assignment is getting there comfortably."

We were passing the lounge when I heard Vincent's voice.

He stood beyond the glass partition with Diana beside him. A delegation from a Gulf investment group had formed a semicircle around them. Her hand rested inside the crook of his elbow.

Felix, unaware, asked, "Katherine, do you want to sit before boarding?"

Vincent lifted his head.

I stopped breathing.

"Did somebody say Katherine?"

Diana leaned into him.

"Probably another Katherine. Yours is always in that laboratory. Mr. Rahal was asking about the terminal acquisition."

A trolley passed between us. Felix steered my suitcase toward the gate, and I followed before Vincent could turn again.

He hadn't come to the airport to stop me. He didn't even know there was something to stop.

At the seats by our gate, Felix opened his satchel and produced a packet of mountain postcards.

"A terrible souvenir from my last trip," he admitted. "Useful if you want to write home before your internet is connected."

I looked at the white peaks printed on the cards.

Tessa would get a message the moment I landed. The people those cards had been meant for were another matter.

I dropped them into the paper-recycling bin.

Felix's smile faded.

"Sorry. I assumed—"

"There's no one at that house waiting for a letter."

He didn't ask me to explain.

Instead, he told me about the tissue-imaging system installed for our project, and the field clinic where our scaffolds would eventually be tested.

The team had moved its planning meetings to late morning. Evening experiments would be covered by rotating staff.

"We need your brain," he said. "We don't need to prove how long you can stand at a bench."

I laughed, unexpectedly close to tears.

On the plane, he described a Saturday market where the apricots came in paper bags and the stallholders remembered everybody's name.

I watched Greyhaven shrink beneath the wing.

The house was somewhere below. So were the photographs, the unanswered questions, and the husband who would learn I was gone from an envelope.

I pressed my palm to the window until the city disappeared.

This time, Vincent would be the one left waiting.