“Is it really true?” Zachary sat down in his chair, leaning forward, his hands on the counter. A huge grin animated his expression. “Am I getting out of here? Did they get who did it? One of the COs told me, he saw on the news! I’m in ad seg, I don’t know anything! What happened? Griff, when am I getting out of here?”

Griff held up his hand. “I spoke with the D.A. He’s not sure yet. These things take time. It might be tomorrow or the next day.”

“What happened? How did they find out I didn’t do it? How did they get the guy who did it?” Zachary looked at Christine, confused but still wildly happy. “What happened, Christine? Were you in some kind of accident? Why are you in scrubs? You look like a nurse!”

Griff kept his hand up. “Zachary, you need to thank Christine. She almost lost her life today, trying to prove your innocence. She is the reason you will be released.”

“Christine, thank you so much.” Zachary met her eye directly. “I don’t know what you did, but I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I didn’t kill Gail, I didn’t kill anybody. I knew you believed in me. Thank you so much for whatever you did. For everything you did. I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”

“You’re welcome,” Christine said, on autopilot. She felt shaken to her very core. She thought she saw sincerity in his expression, but she didn’t know whether to trust it. She didn’t trust him anymore. She didn’t trust herself, either.

Griff cleared his throat. “Zachary, I know how you can thank her. You can explain to her, and Tanya, why you lied.”

Tanya interjected, standing behind Griff, “Zachary, are you 3319 or not? You told me you were, but Homestead says you’re not. Christine’s husband found out.”

Zachary’s smile vanished and his lips parted. His gaze went to Tanya, then to Marcus, and finally to Christine. He heaved a deep sigh in his orange jumpsuit, and his lower lip puckered with apparent regret. “Okay, Christine, Tanya, I did lie about that. I’m sorry, I truly am. I’m not Donor 3319. I never donated sperm, or blood, like I told you I did. I’m sorry, but I lied, I did.”

Christine swallowed hard. The words had a visceral impact, and she absorbed them like a blow. She wasn’t angry, she was confused. The fact that Zachary had been her donor had powered her every thought, and now that he wasn’t, she felt as if the rug had been yanked from under her.

Tanya interjected, wounded, “Why did you lie to us? Why did you lie to me?”

“Tanya, I’m sorry to you, too.” Zachary looked up at Tanya, his mouth forming a regretful line. “When you came to the prison that morning, you seemed so sure and so nice, and I thought if I told you yes, that you would help me, and you did. You did help me. You were there for me, you even gave me half of the retainer. I’m sorry that I lied to you, but if you want to know why I lied, I was desperate. I needed help. I didn’t know what to do. You can imagine what it’s like. I go to meet Gail for a date, and she’s bloody, and she’s dead, and I call 911, and the next thing I know, they arrest me for killing her. They think I’m a serial killer. I was desperate.” Zachary lowered his gaze to Christine, leaning forward urgently. “Christine, I’m so sorry I lied to you, but that was why. You know how they say, ‘desperate times call for desperate measures’? I was desperate. I had to get out of here. When I met you, and we started talking, I really did like you.”

Christine felt a twinge. She wanted to believe him, but she didn’t. Or she couldn’t. Either way, it didn’t matter now, and she didn’t want to interrupt him, so she let him talk.

“I had seen the other reporters, but they were so tough and hard, and I thought there was something different about you, something nicer. Lauren, too.” Zachary smiled warmly. “When you started to ask more personal questions, I started to think that you probably came to me because you saw me on TV, like Tanya had. You thought I was your donor.”

Christine could see how it could happen. She hadn’t known that Tanya was another donor recipient, but if she had, she would’ve suspected Zachary’s admission that he was Donor 3319. Christine had thought that she had gotten to Zachary first, but she had been mistaken. Tanya had, and that made all the difference.

“Christine,” Zachary continued, his voice gentler, “I was in the gen pop then, I went on the computer and looked up Homestead. Tanya had told me the name and the donor number. I read 3319’s online bio, I got the details, and I used them when we talked. I’m a salesman, and I sold you. But I’m not proud of it and I’m not bragging, I hope you know that.”

Christine did. She nodded.

“I’m sorry I lied, but I think you can understand it, can’t you? You didn’t tell me the truth, either. You lied for the same reason that I did, didn’t you? You were desperate to know if I was your donor, and you didn’t want to ask me, straight up, like Tanya did. I don’t know why you didn’t, but I don’t blame you for that. You had reasons of your own, and I had reasons of my own. I had to get out of here. I saw my entire life being taken away. I was in the gen pop then, I saw TV. I was convicted by TV.” Zachary’s voice took on a new urgency, undergirded by fear. “I was being railroaded. Even after I saved the guard, it didn’t make any difference. They say ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ but it isn’t. As soon as you get arrested, you get treated like you’re guilty. Christine, we both used desperate measures, didn’t we?”

“Yes,” Christine had to answer, hearing the truth in his words. She had lied to him, too. She had been desperate, too.

“But the thing is, it doesn’t mean that I’m not grateful to you. I’m not lying about that. I never thought that my lying to you would endanger you, in any way. I thought you would be there for me, and then, when you signed on to help Griff, I thought that was nice.” Zachary frowned, his expression darkening. “But I never thought you would be jeopardized. I didn’t think that you would try to catch a serial killer.”

Christine managed a smile. “I didn’t mean to, but it turned out that way.”

“Thank God you’re safe, and I’m free! Almost.” Zachary smiled, hunching over the counter. “Now, who’s going to tell me what happened?”