“What did Isabel know?”

Gideon did not answer immediately.

Mallerie hated the silence more than any lie.

“Gideon.”

“She received threats.”

“When?”

“Before she died.”

“You knew?”

“Yes.”

“And you didn't tell me?”

“I didn't know they were connected.”

“That isn't an answer.”

Gideon walked toward the window.

Mallerie followed.

“Stop deciding which truth I can handle.”

He turned.

“I was trying to protect you.”

“No. You were controlling information.”

The accusation landed.

He knew she was right.

Isabel had received anonymous letters during the final months of her life.

At the time, Gideon believed they concerned his business.

He increased security.

Isabel insisted they were connected to her charity work.

One letter said:

LET OLD RECORDS STAY BURIED.

Another:

CHILDREN SHOULD NOT PAY FOR THEIR MOTHERS' CURIOSITY.

Mallerie felt sick.

“Children.”

“Yes.”

“Why didn't you take it seriously?”

“I did. Just in the wrong direction.”

He looked ashamed.

“Isabel was already ill. I thought someone was trying to frighten her because of me.”

“Did she tell you about Halden?”

“Once.”

“And?”

“She said she didn't trust him.”

“Then what happened?”

“She died before she could finish telling me.”

Mallerie's anger softened.

Gideon had his own graveyard of unanswered questions.

They searched Isabel's belongings.

Hours passed.

Then Mallerie found a hidden compartment in an old jewelry case.

Inside was a flash drive.

The files were encrypted.

Adrian's team recovered them by morning.

There were financial records.

Hospital payments.

Emails.

And a video Isabel had recorded.

Gideon sat alone at first.

Then he reached for Mallerie's hand.

She sat beside him.

Isabel appeared on screen.

Thin.

Tired.

But determined.

“If Gideon is watching this, then I probably ran out of time.”

Gideon's fingers tightened.

Isabel explained that Halden had been financing an illegal adoption and record-manipulation operation through charitable foundations.

Cross supplied access.

Voss handled legal paperwork.

But Halden wasn't the architect.

“There is a woman,” Isabel said. “I don't know her legal name. Halden calls her C.”

Mallerie closed her eyes.

Cassandra.

Isabel continued.

“She isn't doing this only for money. She chooses certain families personally.”

The video cut.

A corrupted section.

Then Isabel returned.

“If anything happens to me, Gideon, don't trust Voss.”

Gideon looked away.

Mallerie squeezed his hand.

The final sentence changed everything.

“I found evidence that C has been following a young woman named Mallerie Reed.”

Mallerie stopped breathing.

Isabel had known her name before Owen was born.

Before Mallerie had ever met Gideon.

“Why?” Gideon whispered.

The video ended.

Adrian entered minutes later.

“Halden has agreed to speak.”

Victor Halden was seventy-two and living under legal supervision after financial charges unrelated to their case.

He looked exhausted when Mallerie and Gideon met him.

At first he denied everything.

Then Gideon played Isabel's video.

Halden broke.

“Cassandra was obsessed with the Reed family.”

“Why?” Mallerie asked.

“Because of your mother.”

“What did my mother do?”

“She exposed Cassandra years ago.”

“Exposed what?”

Halden rubbed his face.

“Cassandra had been falsifying medical records long before Cross joined her.”

Mallerie's stomach tightened.

“Why?”

“She lost a child. Afterward, something in her changed. She became convinced families didn't deserve children simply because biology gave them one.”

Mallerie stared at him.

“That doesn't explain me.”

“No.”

Halden looked at her.

“You were personal.”

“Why?”

“Your mother discovered what Cassandra was doing.”

“And Cassandra killed her?”

“I don't know.”

“Don't lie.”

“I truly don't.”

Halden leaned closer.

“But Cassandra believed Evelyn destroyed her life. She wanted Evelyn to experience the loss of a child.”

“My mother was already dead when Owen was born.”

“Yes.”

“So she punished me instead.”

Halden looked down.

Mallerie felt something colder than anger.

Cassandra had waited.

Years.

Until Mallerie had a child.

Then she had taken him.

“Why give Owen to Gideon?”

Halden looked at Gideon.

“That wasn't Cassandra's plan.”

Gideon stiffened.

“What?”

“Voss changed it.”

“Why?”

“Because Cross panicked. The baby needed to disappear quickly. Voss knew you wanted children once. He knew your wife was dead. He believed you'd never question a private placement.”

Gideon’s face hardened.

“Where did Cassandra want Owen sent?”

Halden hesitated.

“Overseas.”

Mallerie went cold.

“Where?”

“I don't know.”

Halden leaned back.

“But when she learned Voss had given him to Gideon, she became furious.”

“Then why wait ten months?”

“She didn't.”

“What does that mean?”

“She tried to get him back twice.”

Gideon stood.

“What?”

“The nanny who disappeared after one week.”

Gideon's face changed.

“And the attempted break-in when Owen was four months old.”

Mallerie looked at him.

“You never told me.”

“I didn't know they were connected.”

Halden nodded.

“She has been trying to reach him all along.”

Mallerie felt physically ill.

“Where is Cassandra?”

“I haven't seen her in months.”

“Then who knows?”

“One person.”

“Who?”

Halden looked toward the observation room.

“Dr. Cross.”

Cross was still missing.

But not for long.

That night, Adrian received an alert.

Nathaniel Cross had used an old bank card at a gas station sixty miles away.

Security footage showed him entering a motel.

Police moved immediately.

By the time they arrived, the room was empty.

But Cross had left something behind.

A laptop.

On it was a live video feed.

The screen showed Owen's nursery in Gideon's residence.

Mallerie stared in horror.

Someone had installed a camera inside the room.

Then the nursery door on the screen slowly opened.

A woman's hand appeared.

On one finger was a black-stone ring.