***CONRY***

The night stretched long and unending. I’d been watching the moonlight spill through my window for what felt like hours, but when I finally checked the wall clock, it was just seventeen minutes to ten. I wanted the night to end so badly — to find something, anything, that could occupy my mind and drown out the worry lurking in my heart, even for a minute.

I rose from my chair and began pacing the room, back and forth, hoping movement might coax sleep to come. But it didn’t ...