Chapter 13
Peter was arrested before sunrise.
He did not look calm in custody.
He looked furious.
His first offer was immunity.
His second was information.
His third was a threat.
Harris told me that meant they had him cornered.
Caroline refused to speak after Peter’s arrest.
But when she heard Voss had been taken too, she demanded to see me.
My lawyer said no.
I said yes, with glass between us and a detective recording every word.
Caroline entered wearing jail orange.
She still held her chin high.
“You look tired,” she said.
“You look exactly the same.”
Her smile twitched.
“You think Claire wins now?”
“This was never a game.”
“It was always a game,” she snapped. “She had everything. Even after the crash, even half-dead, she still had you searching for her in dreams.”
I leaned toward the glass.
“You stole my daughter.”
“She loved me.”
“She feared you.”
Caroline’s eyes flashed.
“I raised her.”
“You used her.”
“I gave you a family.”
“You hid my family in a wall.”
For the first time, her face cracked.
“They were supposed to be moved. Peter promised. I never wanted them found like that.”
“Found alive?”
She looked away.
I felt sick.
“What happened to my father?”
She said nothing.
I waited.
Finally, she whispered, “He came to the house. He heard Claire. Peter panicked.”
My throat closed.
“Did you kill him?”
“Voss handled it.”
I stood so fast the chair scraped.
Caroline pressed her hand to the glass.
“I loved you, Ryan.”
“No,” I said. “You loved owning me.”
As I walked out, she shouted after me.
“She’ll never trust you! None of them will!”
I kept walking.
May you like
Because trust was not something I could demand.
It was something I would spend my life earning.
