Chapter 9
We found the second recorder beneath a loose board inside the church confessional.
Thomas had chosen perfectly.
Diane had refused to enter that church for nearly twenty years.
Marcus played the recording in a private room at the federal office.
Thomas's voice came first.
"Diane, I know about the medication."
Then Diane.
"What medication?"
"The bottle in your purse."
Silence.
Thomas continued.
"Samuel gave it to you."
"You went through my things?"
"You asked him for digitalis."
Diane laughed.
"You sound paranoid."
"I spoke to Samuel."
This time, Diane said nothing.
"He told me everything."
"You threatened him."
"No. He was relieved."
A chair scraped.
Then Diane spoke very softly.
"You need to stop."
"I'm going to the FBI tomorrow."
"You'll destroy Ryan."
"No. I'll free him."
"From what?"
"You."
The recording crackled.
Diane's voice became colder.
"You think Emily will stay once she learns who Ryan really is?"
"Ryan knows who he is."
"No, Thomas. Ryan knows the life we built."
"You built it from lies."
"And you enjoyed every benefit."
"I did."
Thomas sounded ashamed.
"That's why I'm going to tell the truth."
"After all these years?"
"Especially after all these years."
The recording stopped.
Then resumed.
A later conversation.
Thomas breathing heavily.
Diane crying.
"Drink some water."
"I don't feel right."
"You're having one of your episodes."
"I don't have episodes."
"Sit down."
A glass clinked.
Then Thomas whispered something.
"Diane."
"What?"
"What did you put in it?"
My skin crawled.
Diane said nothing.
Thomas coughed.
"You poisoned me."
"Don't be absurd."
"Call an ambulance."
"You'll be fine."
"Call—"
The recording ended.
No one spoke.
Ryan stared at the table.
His whole body shook.
Marcus quietly turned off the device.
"We have enough to seek an arrest warrant."
"For murder?" I asked.
"At minimum, enough for a major investigation and detention depending on corroboration."
Ryan stood.
"I want her arrested."
Marcus nodded.
"We're moving."
"But there's another problem."
Everyone looked at me.
"Rebecca."
Ryan stared.
"I know what I saw."
Marcus said, "We checked Rebecca Hart's death record."
"And?"
"She died."
Ryan shook his head.
"Then who was driving that car?"
"Possibly her sister."
"Hannah?"
Marcus pulled up a driver's license photograph.
The resemblance was shocking.
Hannah looked almost identical to Rebecca.
Ryan exhaled.
"That's who I saw."
But why was Hannah watching Claire's house?
Marcus called the number listed for her.
Disconnected.
Police visited the Savannah address.
Empty.
Neighbors said Hannah and Grace had moved six months earlier.
No forwarding information.
Then Claire received a message.
One photograph.
Lily walking through a grocery store with me two months earlier.
Taken from behind.
The caption:
Diane isn't the only one who has been watching.
My blood froze.
"Who sent this?"
Unknown number.
Another message appeared.
Rebecca didn't die from cancer.
Marcus took my phone.
"What?"
A third message.
Meet me where Diane first met Victor.
Come with Ryan.
No police.
Marcus said, "Absolutely not."
Ryan looked at him.
"Where is that?"
He knew.
An abandoned marina outside town.
Thomas used to own a restaurant there decades earlier.
According to Ryan, Diane worked there one summer.
Victor was a bartender.
They met at seventeen.
Marcus organized surveillance despite the warning.
We went.
Not alone.
Not really.
Agents followed from a distance.
The marina was mostly empty.
One warehouse remained.
Hannah stood inside.
Grace was beside her.
She was six years old.
A quiet little girl with Rebecca's eyes.
When she saw Ryan, she hid behind Hannah.
Hannah looked exhausted.
"Thank you for coming."
Ryan stared at Grace.
"Is she—"
"Rebecca's daughter."
"Is she mine?"
"No."
The answer was immediate.
Ryan nodded.
Pain and relief crossed his face at once.
Hannah noticed.
"Rebecca told the truth in her letter."
I stepped forward.
"Why have you been watching Lily?"
"To protect her."
"By photographing her?"
"I didn't know who you were."
"What?"
"I didn't know if you were like Diane."
I almost laughed.
"Diane shoved Lily to the floor at my sister's wedding."
Hannah's expression hardened.
"Then maybe we finally have the same enemy."
She handed me a folder.
"Rebecca didn't die from cancer."
"But the records—"
"She had cancer. She was improving."
"What happened?"
"She went to meet Diane."
Ryan closed his eyes.
"When?"
"Three years ago."
Hannah continued.
"Rebecca had evidence from Thomas. She told Diane she would expose everything if Diane ever came near Grace again."
"What did Diane do?"
"Two days later, Rebecca overdosed."
I whispered, "Suicide?"
"No."
Hannah's eyes filled.
"She didn't take narcotics."
"Then how?"
"Someone crushed pills into her tea."
The similarity to Thomas was impossible to ignore.
"Do you have proof?"
"Rebecca recorded the meeting."
Another recording.
Of course.
This family had survived because people eventually realized Diane's words needed witnesses.
Hannah played it.
Rebecca's voice.
"Diane, stay away from Grace."
Diane laughed.
"You always were dramatic."
"I know what you did in the nursery."
"No one will believe you."
"Thomas does."
"Thomas is weak."
"He has copies."
"Then I'll handle Thomas."
Ryan closed his eyes.
Rebecca said, "And if something happens to me?"
Diane answered.
"Then your daughter will finally have a chance at a respectable family."
My blood went cold.
Hannah stopped the recording.
"Rebecca died six weeks later."
Ryan whispered, "Why didn't you go to police?"
"I did."
"What happened?"
"They called it inconclusive."
"Why?"
"Because Dr. Samuel Price said the medication could have been self-administered."
The same doctor.
Marcus, listening through Ryan's hidden transmitter, now had everything.
But Hannah wasn't finished.
"There's one more thing."
She looked at Ryan.
"Diane knows we're here."
His face changed.
"How?"
"Because I told her."
I stepped backward.
"What?"
Hannah began crying.
"I'm sorry."
The warehouse doors opened.
Diane walked inside.
She was not alone.
Samuel Price came with her.
He held a gun.
Ryan immediately moved in front of me.
Diane looked at Hannah with disgust.
"You always were weak."
Hannah hugged Grace.
"You said you would leave her alone."
"I lied."
Diane looked at Lily's absent space beside me as if she expected my child to be there.
"Where is she?"
I smiled despite my fear.
"Far away from you."
Diane's face twisted.
Samuel raised the gun.
"Give us the recordings."
Ryan stared at his mother.
"You killed Dad."
Diane's expression didn't change.
"He was destroying everything."
"You killed Rebecca."
"Rebecca destroyed herself."
Hannah screamed, "Liar!"
Grace began crying.
Diane rolled her eyes.
"See? This emotional weakness is hereditary."
I had heard enough.
"You know what's funny?"
Diane looked at me.
"You spent your entire life trying to control who belongs in your family."
I stepped closer.
"And now nobody wants you in theirs."
Her face cracked.
Samuel shouted, "Enough!"
Then Marcus's voice came through loudspeakers outside.
"Federal agents! Drop the weapon!"
Samuel panicked.
Diane didn't.
She grabbed his wrist.
For one second, I thought she was pushing the gun down.
Instead, she turned it toward Ryan.
May you like
"Move!" I screamed.
A shot exploded.
