# THOMPSON-HAYES: BLOOD MONEY
## Chapter Two — Nathan's Answer
She made coffee at six in the morning.
Not because she was awake — she had never properly gone to sleep — but because six in the morning was a reasonable hour and coffee was a reasonable thing and she needed the kitchen to feel ordinary before she made it not ordinary.
She called him at seven.
Not a text. She had learned that you could hide in a text — choose the words, rearrange them, soften the edges before you sent them. A phone call required you to be present in real time and she needed him to be present in real time. She needed to hear what his voice did when she asked.
He answered on the first ring.
"Good morning," he said. The warm version of his voice, the one he used before the day required him to be precise.
"
