“No,” snapped the priest, almost wishing that Arthur had kept up his ruse a little longer so that he could have strangled him to death with a good conscience.

Malachi made no effort to move out of the darkened space, but it was cramped. There was room enough for one, but not two, not with the bench in there.

The unfortunate design meant he had to either stay right there in the doctor’s space or leave entirely, and, well, he had a feeling that walking away would be worse.

“Am I not allowed to care about a child if she isn’t my own? And you shouldn’t have even- how did you even know about her?”