Chapter 4: The Same Black Water (Ren and Io, Three Weeks Running)

The sun had been going down for twenty minutes and was taking its time about it.

Hana got to the harbor wall first, which was how she preferred things — a few minutes to settle herself against the stone, to feel the warmth the granite had been collecting all day radiating back through her school uniform, to watch the water turn from blue to something more complicated. The fishing boats in their slips knocked gently against the dock bumpers. Somewhere below the wall's base, water moved in and out of a crevice with a slow, intimate sound, like something breathing in its sleep.

She had told Kenji to come. She had told Sachi. She had trusted that Sachi would handle the twins.