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The pain in her voice takes me back to the night the officers came to our home.

Mom standing beside the staircase.

Hazel crying because she didn’t understand why everyone else was crying.

Storm trying to get past the officers so she could see Dad.

Me waiting for someone to say there had been a mistake.

“What happened?” I ask.

“Daniel found the message.”

“Donald called you?”

“He sent a letter to the house. He knew telephone calls could be traced. Daniel saw it on my desk before I could hide it.”

“Why would you hide it from him?”

“Because he and James had argued the week before. Daniel believed James was involved with something dangerous at Blackwater. James refused to explain what it was.”

Thomas lowers his head.

Mom continues.

“Daniel wanted us to leave San Francisco. He said we should take the girls and go somewhere James couldn’t find us.”

Storm stares at her. “Dad wanted to take us away from Grandpa?”

“For a little while.”

“Grandpa would have followed us.”

“I know.”

“He would have brought his boat.”

Despite everything, Mom smiles.

“Yes. He probably would have.”

The smile disappears.

“When Daniel found Donald’s letter, he became furious. Not with me. With himself. He said Donald hadn’t chosen me because I understood the accounts.”

“Then why?” Willow asks.

“Because I was James Sinclair’s daughter-in-law. Donald believed James would surrender whatever evidence he had to save me.”

A cold emptiness opens inside my chest.

“You were bait.”

“Yes.”

“And Dad went in your place.”

“He locked the financial records inside his desk and made me promise I would stay with the girls. Then he took Ivy’s camera.”