The emergency lights came on seconds later.

Red.

Dim.

Wrong.

I moved between Maya and the door.

Detective Harris drew her weapon.

“Stay behind me.”

The hallway erupted with voices.

Nurses shouted.

Security radios crackled.

Someone announced that a transformer had failed.

Naomi looked unconvinced.

“So Evelyn didn’t cut the hospital power?” I asked.

“Probably not.”

Probably was not comforting.

Two officers arrived outside our room.

Naomi ordered the floor locked down.

Maya sat upright in bed.

“She’ll come here.”

I looked at her.

“You don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do.”

Her voice was calm.

Too calm.

“She thinks I caused this.”

I wanted to argue.

But Maya knew my mother better than I wanted to admit.

Twenty minutes passed.

Then thirty.

The power returned.

Police confirmed Evelyn had escaped when the transport vehicle was hit by a stolen SUV at an intersection.

The attack looked planned.

“Who helped her?” I asked.

Naomi had the same question.

Daniel was still in custody.

So was the officer who had transported Evelyn.

Then they checked Daniel’s call records.

One number appeared repeatedly.

Registered to Helen Mercer.

I knew that name.

My aunt.

My mother’s younger sister.

I closed my eyes.

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

Maya looked at me.

“Helen?”

“My aunt.”

I had not seen her in almost three years.

She lived two counties away.

She and Mom fought constantly.

At least that was what I believed.

Naomi asked, “Would she help Evelyn?”

“I would’ve said no yesterday.”

Yesterday I thought my mother was annoying.

Today I was investigating whether she murdered my father.

My instincts had lost credibility.

Police went to Helen’s house.

She was gone.

Her garage was empty.

Security footage showed a dark SUV leaving thirty minutes after Evelyn escaped.

Naomi placed both women on an alert.

Then she arranged protective custody for Maya and me.

We were moved from the hospital to a secure medical wing at another facility.

Rebecca flew in that evening.

The first time I saw my sister, I knew.

Not because she looked exactly like Dad.

She didn’t.

But she had his eyes.

Same gray-green color.

Same way of studying a room before speaking.

We stood across from each other in a private hospital lounge.

Neither moved.

Then Rebecca laughed through tears.

“You have his ears.”

I laughed too.

“You have his terrible serious face.”

She covered her mouth.

And suddenly we were hugging.

I had never hugged my sister before.

Thirty-four years old.

And meeting a piece of my family I never knew had been stolen from me.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

She pulled back.

“For what?”

“For having him when you didn’t.”

Rebecca shook her head.

“You were a kid.”

“I had birthdays with him.”

“So did I. Just not enough.”

Her kindness hurt more than anger would have.

Maya entered slowly.

Rebecca immediately hugged her.

“Thank you for surviving.”

Maya cried.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“You exposed everything.”

“No.”

Maya looked at me.

“Caleb came home.”

Rebecca smiled.

“Then thank you for coming home early.”

That coincidence haunted me.

If the meeting in Chicago had not been canceled…

Another two days.

I could not finish that thought.

Later, Naomi arrived with test results.

Dad’s blood contained elevated levels of digoxin.

My chest went cold.

“Could it have been prescribed?”

“No record of prescription.”

“So he was poisoned.”

Naomi chose her words carefully.

“The result strongly supports that possibility.”

Rebecca sat beside me.

“What happens now?”

“The medical examiner may reopen the death investigation.”

I stared at the wall.

My father was murdered.

Possibly by my mother.

My childhood memories rearranged themselves.

Mom crying at the funeral.

Mom collapsing beside the casket.

Mom refusing an autopsy because “George would hate being cut open.”

I felt sick.

“She stopped the autopsy.”

Naomi nodded.

“We know.”

Maya whispered, “Caleb.”

I stood.

“I need air.”

I reached the hall before the anger hit.

I slammed my fist into the wall.

Once.

Pain shot through my hand.

Then Rebecca grabbed my wrist.

“Stop.”

I looked at her.

“She took him from both of us.”

Rebecca’s eyes filled.

“I know.”

“She kept you away.”

“I know.”

“She almost killed my wife.”

“I know.”

I sank against the wall.

Rebecca sat beside me on the floor.

For several minutes, my sister and I cried over a father neither of us had truly known.

The next morning brought another shock.

Samuel Klein arrived with Dad’s original estate file.

He laid documents across a conference table.

Rebecca sat beside me.

Maya remained upstairs resting.

Naomi stood near the door.

Samuel looked ashamed.

“George told me to contact both of you if anything happened.”

I stared at him.

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because Evelyn produced a document stating the trust had been revoked.”

“Was it real?”

“No.”

Samuel looked down.

“I realized that later.”

“How much later?”

“Two years.”

I laughed bitterly.

“And you still stayed silent?”

“I was afraid.”

I stood.

“Everyone was afraid of my mother.”

Samuel didn’t defend himself.

“Yes.”

That honesty stopped me.

He pushed a document toward us.

Dad had divided the company equally between Rebecca and me.

But there was something else.

A separate trust.

For any grandchildren.

Maya’s baby would automatically become a future beneficiary.

“That explains Evelyn’s note,” Rebecca said.

REMOVE BEFORE BIRTH.

I hated seeing the words.

Samuel continued.

“George anticipated Evelyn might challenge the trust.”

“So?”

“He created a safeguard.”

“What safeguard?”

“If there is credible evidence Evelyn interfered with either child or any grandchild, all financial benefits to her terminate immediately.”

I stared.

“She loses everything?”

Samuel nodded.

“Everything derived from George’s estate.”

Rebecca looked at me.

“That explains the panic.”

Yes.

My mother had not locked Maya in a shed because Maya insulted her.

She was trying to stop a legal trigger.

By hurting Maya, she had activated it.

The irony would have been satisfying if my wife had not nearly died.

Then Naomi entered.

“We found Helen’s SUV.”

Everyone looked at her.

“Where?”

“Abandoned near a private airfield.”

My chest tightened.

“Did they leave?”

“No record of either woman boarding a plane.”

“So where are they?”

Naomi looked grim.

“We found blood in the back seat.”

My heart stopped.

“Whose?”

“Unknown.”

Then she placed a phone inside an evidence bag on the table.

“Helen’s.”

A video had been recorded two hours earlier.

Naomi played it.

Helen appeared on screen.

Her face was bruised.

She was crying.

“If anyone finds this…”

She looked over her shoulder.

“Evelyn knows about Rebecca.”

My sister went still.

“She says Rebecca should have disappeared thirty years ago.”

Rebecca’s face drained of color.

Helen continued.

“She is going to finish what she started.”

The video shook.

“And Caleb…”

I leaned closer.

“Your mother knows where Maya was moved.”

The screen went black.

I stood so fast my chair fell.

My phone rang upstairs.

Then I heard Maya scream.