# THOMPSON-HAYES: THE INSIDE OUT
## Chapter Five — The Confrontation
She went back to Patricia's office on Sunday evening.
No appointment. No text ahead. She drove there the same way she had driven to Fredericksburg the previous year — alone, by instinct, trusting that the conversation required her to be just one person walking in.
Patricia was at her desk. Same lamp. Same pen. The same quality of stillness that her office had at this hour — the building quiet around her, the city moving outside the window.
Patricia looked up.
She looked at Mia's face.
She set the pen down.
"I told you three days," Mia said.
"You did," Patricia said.
"I'm using two." She sat in the chair. The one that faced directly. "I've been thinking about the gap."
"Tell me," Patricia said.
"The gap between
