Chapter 5
I showed Detective Harris the message.
His face went hard.
“Do not respond.”
“Trace it.”
“We’re trying.”
I looked through the glass at Lily sitting beside Mia, sharing crackers from a hospital snack pack.
Mia watched her like she was sunlight.
Noah slept with his thumb in his mouth.
Claire stared at all three children with a grief so deep I could barely look at it.
“She lost Lily,” I said.
Harris nodded.
“And you lost the truth.”
I hated how calm he sounded.
But I needed calm.
If I let rage take over, Caroline and whoever helped her would use it.
That afternoon, Caroline asked to see me.
My lawyer said no.
I said yes, with glass between us and Harris recording everything.
She entered in jail clothing, but somehow still looked offended.
As if the room itself had wronged her.
“Ryan,” she said softly.
I did not answer.
She sat.
“You look exhausted.”
“Where did Lily come from?”
Her face changed.
Only for a second.
Then she smiled.
“Our daughter.”
“No. Claire’s daughter.”
Her jaw tightened.
“Claire doesn’t deserve that word.”
“Mother?”
Caroline leaned forward.
“I raised Lily. I held her when she cried. I was there when she had fevers. I was there when you forgot everyone else.”
“You stole her.”
“I saved you from a woman who would have taken everything.”
“Claire was my wife.”
“She was a threat.”
“To what?”
“To us.”
“There was no us.”
She slapped the glass with her palm.
“There was! I made there be!”
Her breathing grew ragged.
“I rebuilt your life. I gave you a child. I gave you peace.”
“You gave me a house with prisoners in the wall.”
She looked away.
“They weren’t supposed to still be there.”
I went still.
“Who was supposed to move them?”
She smiled again.
Ask Peter, she mouthed.
Then she leaned back and said out loud, “You always trusted lawyers more than wives.”
Peter Lang.
Our family attorney.
The man who handled the house, my father’s estate, and my marriage to Caroline.
The man who had smiled at Lily’s birthday parties.
Harris stopped the recording.
May you like
“We’re picking him up now.”
But Peter was already gone.
