I boxed nearly everything and placed it in a storage facility outside Baltimore.

Damian's phone suddenly rang.

Everyone froze.

He stared at the screen.

Unknown number.

Damian answered.

"Father."

An old man's voice came through the speaker.

"Hello, son."

Damian's face became expressionless.

"I heard you were dead."

"So did many people."

"Disappointing habit."

Mikhail laughed softly.

Then he said, "I see Daniil's widow has finally found the video."

Every person in the room went still.

Damian looked around.

"How do you know?"

"Because I have watched you since you left the house."

Marcus started checking the room.

Mikhail continued.

"You were always too certain walls protected you."

Damian looked toward the ceiling camera.

Marcus unplugged it.

The voice laughed.

"Too late."

I stepped closer.

"What do you want?"

Silence.

Then Mikhail asked, "Emily?"

"Yes."

"You sound like the kind of woman my oldest son would have loved."

My skin crawled.

"You don't get to speak about him."

"Oh, but I knew him before you did."

"You abandoned him."

The old man's voice hardened.

"I corrected a weakness."

Damian closed his eyes.

I said, "He became a better man without you."

Silence.

Then Mikhail laughed.

"Perhaps."

The word surprised me.

"I want the ledger."

"You can't have it."

"You don't know what it contains."

"I know enough."

Mikhail sighed.

"Then we negotiate."

"No."

"Emily."

His tone remained calm.

"I am holding someone you know."

My heart stopped.

Damian stood.

"Who?"

The old man said, "Rosa Alvarez."

I closed my eyes.

Rosa.

The cook who had helped us escape.

"She is unharmed."

Mikhail continued.

"And she will remain unharmed if Emily brings the ledger to Grayhaven."

Damian said, "No."

"This is not your decision."

"It is now."

Mikhail chuckled.

"You finally sound like my son."

Damian's face went cold.

"Don't insult me."

The line disconnected.

No one moved.

Then Victor said, "We can't give him the ledger."

I looked at him.

"Rosa helped us."

"I know."

"You want to leave her there?"

"No."

"Then what?"

Damian sat down slowly.

His body was weakening again.

But his mind had become frighteningly clear.

"We give Father exactly what he expects."

Victor frowned.

"The book?"

Damian looked at me.

"No."

He looked toward the laptop.

"We give him a family divided by fear."

Marcus understood first.

A slow smile appeared.

Damian continued.

"He expects Victor to betray me."

Victor stared.

"Reasonably."

"He expects Emily to protect Lila above everyone."

"I will."

"He expects me to protect power."

Damian looked at Lila.

"But he has not met the people we are now."

I thought about Daniel's final sentence.

Do not give it to Damian unless you believe he has changed.

I studied Damian.

The dying man who had threatened everyone who entered his room.

The uncle now practicing a child's name in sign language.

The brother grieving someone he had believed dead for decades.

"What's the plan?"

Damian looked at Victor.

Victor looked at me.

And for the first time, the three of us were not united by trust.

We were united by choice.

Six hours later, Grayhaven House stood under a clear morning sky as though nothing had happened.

I walked through the front door carrying Daniel's recipe book.

Damian entered beside me in a wheelchair.

Victor pushed him.

Marcus was nowhere visible.

Neither was Lila.

That was intentional.

Mikhail Volkov waited in the library.

He was smaller than I expected.

An elegant old man with silver hair and a dark suit.

He did not look like the source of a family's nightmares.

He looked like someone's grandfather.

Perhaps that was worse.

Rosa sat on a sofa nearby.

She was frightened but unharmed.

Mikhail smiled at Damian.

"My son."

Damian said nothing.

Then Mikhail looked at me.

"And Daniil's widow."

I held up the recipe book.

"You wanted this."

His eyes gleamed.

"Very much."

"Rosa leaves first."

"Of course."

He nodded.

A man opened the library door.

Rosa stood.

As she passed me, she squeezed my hand.

Then she left.

Mikhail gestured toward the book.

"Now."

I walked forward.

Victor suddenly drew a gun.

He pointed it at Damian.

My heart lurched even though I knew it was part of the plan.

Mikhail smiled.

"There you are."

Victor's expression was cold.

"I want what you promised."

Damian looked up at him.

"Betrayal suits you."

Victor answered, "I've had practice."

Mikhail laughed.

He took the recipe book from my hands.

Then something unexpected happened.

He tossed it into the fireplace.

Flames caught the cover.

I forgot the plan completely.

"No!"

Mikhail watched me.

"You thought I wanted the book?"

Damian's face changed.

Mikhail smiled.

"I wanted to see who would bring it."

Victor lowered his gun slightly.

"What?"

Mikhail walked toward the desk.

"The ledger ceased to matter years ago."

He opened a drawer.

Inside was a stack of letters.

Daniel's handwriting covered every envelope.

My knees weakened.

Mikhail picked one up.

"Daniil wrote to me."

I stared at him.

"When?"

"For years."

"That's impossible."

"Is it?"

He handed me a letter.

The date was three years after Daniel's supposed death.

My hands began shaking.

I looked at the signature.

Daniel.

I knew every curve of that handwriting.

Damian whispered, "Father."

Mikhail looked at me.

"You came here believing Daniil died five years ago."

The room seemed to fall away.

Mikhail's next words destroyed everything I thought I knew.

"He didn't."

I could not breathe.

"He survived."

Damian stared at his father.

Victor went white.

Mikhail continued.

"And until eighteen months ago, your husband was alive."

I gripped the letter.

"Where?"

Mikhail smiled without warmth.

"That, Emily, is the secret Daniil made all of you work very hard to discover."

He reached into the drawer and placed one final object on the desk.

A recent photograph.

Daniel stood beside a small cottage.

Older.

Thinner.

Alive.

And beside him stood a little girl.

Not Lila.

Another child.

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