"I know."

Rosa walked to the pantry and opened a narrow door.

"Use the old laundry tunnel."

I stared at her.

"This house has another secret passage?"

Rosa shrugged.

"Rich people in 1912 apparently hated hallways."

Even Damian almost smiled.

Rosa crouched beside Lila.

She touched two fingers to her heart, then pointed toward the door.

Lila understood the gesture.

Be brave.

We entered the tunnel.

Behind us, Rosa shut the door.

The passage smelled of earth and damp stone.

Lila's shoes clicked softly on the floor.

Halfway down, Damian stopped.

His entire body began trembling.

Marcus caught him.

"Sir?"

Damian's skin looked gray.

I touched his forehead.

Cold sweat covered it.

"He's getting worse."

Damian tried to speak but could not.

Lila suddenly pointed at his pocket.

Then she signed.

Medicine?

I shook my head.

"No, sweetheart."

Damian's eyes opened.

"Wait."

Marcus searched the robe pocket.

He pulled out a small silver pill case.

Dr.

Shaw's medication.

"Don't give him that," I said.

Marcus stared at it.

"Then what do we do?"

I remembered something.

"Hospital."

Damian shook his head weakly.

"Not yet."

"You may not have a later."

He looked at me.

For once, there was no authority in his eyes.

Only exhaustion.

"My daughter died in a hospital."

The words stopped me.

Marcus turned away.

I stared at Damian.

"I didn't know you had a daughter."

"Most people don't."

His breathing came unevenly.

"Anna."

Lila watched his mouth.

She could not understand the name, but she saw the grief.

Damian closed his eyes.

"She was six."

"What happened?"

"Leukemia."

His voice cracked on the last word.

"I spent millions trying to control something money could not command."

The tunnel went silent.

"When she died, I decided hospitals were places where people went to lose."

I knelt in front of him.

"Damian."

He opened his eyes.

"If you stay here because you're afraid of losing again, Victor wins without doing anything."

His jaw tightened.

I continued.

"Lila has spent more time in hospitals than any child should."

He glanced toward her.

"She isn't afraid of them."

I signed to Lila.

Hospital scary?

She shook her head.

Doctor helps.

I translated.

Damian looked at her for several seconds.

Then he whispered, "Fine."

Marcus helped him up.

We reached the boathouse five minutes later.

Rain hammered the roof.

A small motorboat rocked against the dock.

Marcus supported Damian while I helped Lila into the boat.

Then headlights flashed through the trees.

Marcus cursed.

Victor's voice echoed from the path.

"Damian!"

We froze.

"Stop running."

Damian looked almost offended.

"I am barely walking."

I would have laughed if I had not been terrified.

Marcus untied the boat.

Victor stepped into view beneath a black umbrella.

Dr.

Shaw stood beside him.

Neither carried a visible weapon.

That somehow made the moment more frightening.

Victor raised both hands.

"Listen to me."

"No," Damian said.

Victor stared at him through the rain.

"Emily doesn't understand what she's carrying."

"The recorder?"

Victor shook his head.

"Not the recorder."

His gaze settled on Lila.

"The child."

My entire body went rigid.

"What are you talking about?"

Dr.

Shaw stepped forward.

"Emily, please."

I pulled Lila behind me.

"Stay away from her."

Dr.

Shaw's face was pale.

"I won't hurt her."

"You poisoned a man for months."

"It's more complicated than you think."

"It usually is when guilty people explain themselves."

Victor looked toward Damian.

"Tell her."

Damian frowned.

"Tell her what?"

Victor's expression shifted.

And suddenly I realized he believed Damian was hiding something too.

Victor laughed softly.

"You truly don't know."

Damian went still.

"Know what?"

Dr.

Shaw closed her eyes.

Victor reached inside his jacket.

Marcus moved instantly.

"Don't."

Victor slowly withdrew an envelope.

Not a gun.

A white envelope sealed in plastic.

He tossed it onto the dock.

It landed near Damian's feet.

"What is that?"

I asked.

Victor looked directly at me.

"Something Dr.

Shaw found six weeks ago."

Damian bent with difficulty and picked it up.

His fingers trembled as he opened it.

Inside were several medical documents.

He read the first page.

Then he read it again.

Whatever he saw made all color vanish from his face.

I stepped closer.

"What?"

He looked at Lila.

Then at me.

The expression in his eyes frightened me more than Victor's gun had.

"Emily."

His voice was almost inaudible.

"Who was Lila's father?"

The rain seemed to stop.

Or perhaps my mind simply stopped hearing it.

I stared at him.

"Why?"

"Answer me."

I felt anger rise.

"You don't get to interrogate me."

He handed me the paper.

At the top was a laboratory name.

Below it were columns of genetic markers.

I understood almost none of them.

Then I saw two words.

PATERNITY PROBABILITY.

99.98%.

My breath disappeared.

"No."

Damian looked at me.

The paper shook between us.

The listed alleged father was not Damian.

It was a name I had not seen in almost five years.

Daniel Carter.

My husband.

Lila's father.

The man I had been told died before she was born.

Beneath his name was another line.

BIOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIP: FULL SIBLING MATCH TO DAMIAN VOLKOV.

I read it three times.

"No."

Victor spoke from the rain.

"Daniel Carter wasn't his real name."

I could barely turn my head.

Victor's eyes were fixed on Damian.

"His real name was Daniil Volkov."

Damian made a sound somewhere between a breath and a groan.

"My brother."

Victor nodded.

"Your older brother."

Marcus stared at him.

"That's impossible."

"No," Victor said.

"It was hidden."

Damian looked at me as if the world had shifted under his feet.

"My father said Daniil died in Russia when he was twelve."

Victor's smile was bitter.

"Your father lied."

I gripped the document.

"Daniel told me he grew up in foster care."

"He did," Victor said.

"In Pennsylvania."

Dr.

Shaw finally spoke.

"Damian's father sent him away after his mother died."

"Why?"

No one answered.

I raised my voice.

"Why?"

Victor looked toward Damian.

"Because Daniil wasn't useful."

Damian's face hardened.

Victor continued.

"He was gentle."

A strange word in this house.

"He hated violence."

Victor's mouth twisted.

"Our father considered kindness a defect."

I felt suddenly dizzy.

Memories rushed at me.

Daniel laughing while assembling a crib backward.

Daniel reading every instruction manual as if it were sacred law.

Daniel touching my pregnant belly and promising our child would never grow up afraid.

He had never spoken about his family.

I had believed there simply was no family.

"Daniel died in a construction accident," I whispered.

Victor looked at Dr.

Shaw.

She lowered her eyes.

My stomach turned.

"No."

Damian looked sharply at her.

"What?"

Dr.

Shaw said nothing.

Victor's voice became colder.

"Tell her."

"Victor."

"Tell her what you found."

Dr.

Shaw's shoulders sagged.

"Daniel Carter did not die in a construction accident."

My legs nearly gave way.

I held the side of the boat.

"Then how did he die?"

She looked at Damian.

"I don't know."

"You expect me to believe that?"

"I know only that the death certificate was falsified."

Damian stared at her.

"And who arranged that?"

Dr.

Shaw looked toward Victor.

Victor's face went still.

For the first time since this began, he looked afraid.