up here.
All of it built beneath a mountain full of names.
Then Lily ran east.
Not down.
East.
Branches tore at her jeans.
Her lungs burned.
Behind her, Mercer forced the grate open and shouted to Buck.
A gunshot cracked across the ridge.
Bark exploded from a pine beside Lily’s head.
She dropped low and rolled behind a boulder.
Her mother’s jacket ripped at the shoulder.
The bank envelope slid out.
The cashier’s check fluttered into the grass.
Lily grabbed it.
Then stopped.
On the back of the check,
