Too Late Mr Cole

e, here,

all Damien Cole had for me. No real explanation. No apology

e with his jacket still on and his keys still in his hand told me everything. He hadn't come home tonight. He had come to fini

ed the

age, neat and certain, like he had been rehearsing this moment for months. Maybe he had. Da

of us," he said. "You

checked out on. I sat there and looked at him. Really looked at him. I searched his face for something. Guilt. Discomfort. Anything human. But Damien w

ed up

t moment. I had imagined this scene before, in the long quiet hours whe

left to save. But sitting there with the pen in my hand none of that came. What came instead w

page without

right then it didn't matter anymore. I reached beside me and picked up my bag. I had packed it that morning, not because I had known the papers w

too

when he said my name. Slower. Like h

ut I didn't

ng to say anyth

I attended on his arm while he spent the whole night scanning the room for her. Every time Vivienne Lau's name came up and his entire

. "You said it when you signed your name

lked

breathing it in. Couples walked past. A cab honked somewhere down the street. The world was complete

d out m

ed but I opened it again just to feel the weight of it one more time. It was from a private genetics lab. Eight months ago I

o immediately walk back. A small comment about how my father used to sa

e people who raised me. I had been placed through a private adoption arrangement as an infant

h

ries. As in one of the most powerful

floor Damien Cole was probably already relieved. Probably already reaching for his phone to call

idea what picture I

that my buried identity and the Cole family were connected in a way that was going to mak

umber. I stared at the s

I ans

and deliberate. "My name is Victor Shao. I think it's ti