Debbie went completely still, her spine straightening so abruptly, it was as if someone had snapped an invisible thread inside her, and for a second she looked less like the confident medical assistant s***h physiotherapist who handled emergencies without blinking and more like a girl caught protecting a secret she had been nursing in silence for far too long.
What she did not understand was the way Cassie saw through her like a glass but her question was no accusatory.
Rather, it carried a faint hint of someone who wanted to help but not knowing how.
"Please don't say that out loud," Debbie whispered, the urgency in her voice trembling just beneath the surface as her eyes flicked instinctively toward the hallway where the men's voices drifted faintly in conversation.
"If he
