For several seconds, nobody spoke.<\/p>\n
Then I laughed.<\/p>\n
Not because anything was funny.<\/p>\n
Because apparently my family had reached the stage where every betrayal contained another betrayal underneath it.<\/p>\n
\u201cEthan worked with you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor six years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe same Ethan who helped Olivia steal my identity?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe same Ethan who told her to frame me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe same Ethan who helped bury Michael?\u201d<\/p>\n
Her face tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen explain how that makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t make him good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t ask whether he was good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily adjusted herself against the hospital pillows.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes him divided.\u201d<\/p>\n
I hated that word.<\/p>\n
Divided sounded gentler than cowardly.<\/p>\n
But I sat.<\/p>\n
Emily first contacted Ethan six years earlier.<\/p>\n
Not as his cousin.<\/p>\n
As a private investigator claiming to examine fraudulent corporate accounts.<\/p>\n
She suspected he had become involved in Victor\u2019s network.<\/p>\n
Ethan denied everything.<\/p>\n
Then he followed her.<\/p>\n
Discovered her identity.<\/p>\n
Confronted her.<\/p>\n
She told him Teresa was murdered.<\/p>\n
He did not believe her.<\/p>\n
So she showed him photographs.<\/p>\n
Victor.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth.<\/p>\n
Robert.<\/p>\n
Teresa.<\/p>\n
Then records proving Mom was Elizabeth Mercer.<\/p>\n
Ethan went home and confronted Dad.<\/p>\n
Dad admitted enough.<\/p>\n
That was when Ethan learned our family\u2019s history was false.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he do?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor months,\u201d Emily added.<\/p>\n
Then Victor involved Ethan in a financial transaction without explaining the full purpose.<\/p>\n
Ethan realized he was being positioned to inherit responsibility for the network.<\/p>\n
He contacted Emily.<\/p>\n
Quietly.<\/p>\n
For years, he gave her account numbers.<\/p>\n
Meeting locations.<\/p>\n
Names Victor used.<\/p>\n
He helped build the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why keep committing crimes?\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily looked exhausted.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause he wanted Victor exposed without exposing himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
There it was.<\/p>\n
Ethan wanted justice with an exemption.<\/p>\n
He wanted the building demolished while preserving the room where he stood.<\/p>\n
Michael complicated that.<\/p>\n
Michael found evidence Ethan was financially involved.<\/p>\n
He did not know Ethan had also been informing Emily.<\/p>\n
Emily wanted to tell him.<\/p>\n
Ethan refused.<\/p>\n
He feared Michael would insist on immediate disclosure to authorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would have,\u201d Susan said from the doorway.<\/p>\n
Nobody had heard her arrive.<\/p>\n
Emily nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Susan entered.<\/p>\n
Her face was pale.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo Ethan let Michael think he was fully loyal to Victor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd when Michael confronted Olivia, Ethan went there pretending to protect the family.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Susan\u2019s voice sharpened.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe pushed my son.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen called Victor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Susan walked closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Michael told him he was going to the FBI that night.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the point.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily met her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo Ethan, it meant prison.\u201d<\/p>\n
Susan stared at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood.\u201d<\/p>\n
No one argued.<\/p>\n
Ethan\u2019s cooperation with Emily did not erase his choices.<\/p>\n
It made them worse in a different way.<\/p>\n
He knew what Victor was.<\/p>\n
Knew Teresa had been murdered.<\/p>\n
Knew the identity operation was criminal.<\/p>\n
Still, when Michael threatened to expose it, Ethan chose himself.<\/p>\n
He called Victor.<\/p>\n
Maybe he did not intend Michael to die.<\/p>\n
But he summoned the man most likely to make that happen.<\/p>\n
Emily looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter Michael died, Ethan broke contact with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause he knew you\u2019d blame him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen did he contact you again?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter Daniel.\u201d<\/p>\n
That surprised me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe morning after your arrest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily had received a message through an encrypted account.<\/p>\n
One sentence.<\/p>\n
I did it again.<\/p>\n
She knew immediately it was Ethan.<\/p>\n
He explained Olivia\u2019s accident.<\/p>\n
The call.<\/p>\n
The framing plan.<\/p>\n
He said Victor had instructed him to let the case proceed.<\/p>\n
Emily wanted Ethan to confess.<\/p>\n
He refused.<\/p>\n
Again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he want from you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo find a way to clear you without exposing him.\u201d<\/p>\n
I laughed bitterly.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery Ethan.\u201d<\/p>\n
He wanted me free.<\/p>\n
Olivia protected.<\/p>\n
Himself untouched.<\/p>\n
Victor caught.<\/p>\n
A solution in which every contradiction magically disappeared.<\/p>\n
Emily told him no.<\/p>\n
Then she made her own terrible calculation.<\/p>\n
She allowed my arrest to create biometric evidence.<\/p>\n
Two people deciding how much danger I could tolerate without asking me.<\/p>\n
I looked at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou and Ethan were more alike than you thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pain crossed her face.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monroe brought Ethan into another interview.<\/p>\n
This time I entered the room.<\/p>\n
His attorney objected.<\/p>\n
Collins reminded everyone I was there voluntarily and would leave if questioning became inappropriate.<\/p>\n
Ethan looked terrible.<\/p>\n
He had not shaved.<\/p>\n
His expensive courthouse suit was gone.<\/p>\n
Orange fabric did not flatter his sense of authority.<\/p>\n
He looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cClara.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo speeches.\u201d<\/p>\n
He nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know about Emily.\u201d<\/p>\n
His eyes closed.<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSix years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knew Mom wasn\u2019t Margaret.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knew Teresa was murdered.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEventually.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knew Victor was running the identities.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou kept helping him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was trying to get evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were trying to protect yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
His jaw tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
At least that answer came quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did you call Victor when Michael was hurt?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ethan stared at his hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cI panicked.\u201d<\/p>\n
I almost smiled.<\/p>\n
There it was.<\/p>\n
The family religion.<\/p>\n
Panic.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichael hit the bench,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was blood everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOlivia wanted an ambulance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou stopped her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought if police came\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019d find Teresa.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you.\u201d<\/p>\n
His voice dropped.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you called Victor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought he\u2019d know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knew exactly what Victor did with problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ethan\u2019s eyes filled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t think he\u2019d kill Michael.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/p>\n
No answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knew he killed Teresa.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know for certain then.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou suspected.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knew Lillian disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knew Emily was terrified of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you called him to deal with an injured witness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ethan looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
He flinched.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t spend that word on me yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
I leaned forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cTell Susan.\u201d<\/p>\n
His face changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe won\u2019t want\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t get to decide what she wants.\u201d<\/p>\n
That had been our family\u2019s mistake with everyone.<\/p>\n
Deciding what another person could handle.<\/p>\n
What they needed.<\/p>\n
What truth they deserved.<\/p>\n
Susan entered.<\/p>\n
Ethan could barely look at her.<\/p>\n
He apologized.<\/p>\n
Not beautifully.<\/p>\n
Not convincingly at first.<\/p>\n
Susan stopped him.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid Michael ask you to call an ambulance?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you know he was alive when Victor arrived?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you see Victor kill him?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ethan swallowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Susan closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ethan\u2019s attorney objected.<\/p>\n
Susan looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI buried my son without knowing how he died.\u201d<\/p>\n
The attorney stopped.<\/p>\n
Ethan answered.<\/p>\n
Victor suffocated Michael.<\/p>\n
Used a plastic evidence bag from the cabin.<\/p>\n
Michael fought.<\/p>\n
Ethan stood outside the room.<\/p>\n
Olivia tried to get back inside.<\/p>\n
Ethan held her.<\/p>\n
He heard Michael struggling.<\/p>\n
Then silence.<\/p>\n
Susan listened without moving.<\/p>\n
When he finished, she asked one question.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you stop him?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ethan cried.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Susan nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo was Michael.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then she left.<\/p>\n
No forgiveness.<\/p>\n
No dramatic condemnation.<\/p>\n
Just the fact.<\/p>\n
So was Michael.<\/p>\n
Ethan sat with it.<\/p>\n
Monroe resumed questioning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did Victor believe you wouldn\u2019t cooperate if Clara died?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ethan looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause that was my line.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYour line?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI told him years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat exactly?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat Clara wasn\u2019t part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou helped steal my identity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou framed me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t get credit for having a line after crossing it repeatedly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Victor had apparently understood Ethan\u2019s contradiction.<\/p>\n
He could exploit me.<\/p>\n
Pressure me.<\/p>\n
Use my identity.<\/p>\n
Even let me face prison.<\/p>\n
But killing me would force Ethan to confront himself in a way he had avoided.<\/p>\n
Maybe Victor believed that.<\/p>\n
Maybe Ethan did too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
Ethan looked at me for a long time.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause you were the only person in the family who still remembered who we were before all this.\u201d<\/p>\n
I almost laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was two when Teresa died.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He rubbed his face.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore we started explaining everything away.\u201d<\/p>\n
He remembered stealing candy as a child and me making him return it.<\/p>\n
Dad lying about breaking a neighbor\u2019s fence and me blurting out the truth.<\/p>\n
Mom calling me impossible because I asked why rules changed whenever adults broke them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hated that about you sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cClearly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I also knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKnew what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat if you ever became like us, there was nothing left to compare us to.\u201d<\/p>\n
I did not know what to do with that.<\/p>\n
It was not love in any useful form.<\/p>\n
Maybe recognition.<\/p>\n
Maybe shame.<\/p>\n
Monroe asked about Victor\u2019s current location.<\/p>\n
Ethan did not know.<\/p>\n
But he knew his escape system.<\/p>\n
Victor kept three fallback identities.<\/p>\n
One domestic.<\/p>\n
One Canadian.<\/p>\n
One European.<\/p>\n
The continuity list identified two.<\/p>\n
The third remained unknown.<\/p>\n
Michael\u2019s watch archive might contain it.<\/p>\n
Cho searched.<\/p>\n
Buried inside encrypted financial records was a recurring account tied to the name Gregory Vale.<\/p>\n
Passport issued.<\/p>\n
Age sixty-six.<\/p>\n
Address in Vermont.<\/p>\n
Photograph?<\/p>\n
Victor.<\/p>\n
Agents alerted border authorities quietly.<\/p>\n
No public warrant announcement yet.<\/p>\n
If Victor believed his identities remained safe, he might use one.<\/p>\n
Then Ethan gave us another clue.<\/p>\n
\u201cVictor won\u2019t leave without the archive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have his archive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe industrial building.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s copies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat archive?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe original identity source documents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Birth certificates.<\/p>\n
Death certificates.<\/p>\n
Photographs.<\/p>\n
Fingerprints.<\/p>\n
Blank forms.<\/p>\n
Material collected over decades.<\/p>\n
Enough to construct identities elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ethan did not know.<\/p>\n
But Elizabeth did.<\/p>\n
Mom was brought in.<\/p>\n
She refused.<\/p>\n
Monroe showed her the continuity list.<\/p>\n
The quilt.<\/p>\n
Victor\u2019s photographs.<\/p>\n
Michael\u2019s recording.<\/p>\n
Teresa\u2019s video.<\/p>\n
Then the frame showing Mom holding the poker.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth stopped breathing normally.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have the tape.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her attorney asked for a break.<\/p>\n
Mom shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monroe leaned forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is Victor\u2019s original archive?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom stared at the frozen image of herself.<\/p>\n
Twenty-nine-year-old Elizabeth Mercer holding the weapon beside her sister\u2019s body.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy should I tell you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Victor is still free.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll disappear.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is what we\u2019re trying to prevent.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monroe waited.<\/p>\n
Mom looked toward the mirror.<\/p>\n
\u201cClara.\u201d<\/p>\n
I entered.<\/p>\n
Her attorney objected.<\/p>\n
Mom insisted.<\/p>\n
I sat opposite her.<\/p>\n
She looked older than she had two days earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou wanted the truth,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou got it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSome.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think there\u2019s more?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always more with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
She almost smiled.<\/p>\n
Not amusement.<\/p>\n
Recognition.<\/p>\n
\u201cVictor has documents that could destroy people who never knew they were part of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen tell them where.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll kill Emily.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEmily is safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom\u2019s eyes widened.<\/p>\n
That was the first genuine surprise I had seen from her.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou found her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOlivia?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom shut her eyes.<\/p>\n
For one second, relief crossed her face.<\/p>\n
Real.<\/p>\n
Human.<\/p>\n
Complicated.<\/p>\n
Then I said, \u201cMichael isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
The relief disappeared.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTeresa isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her face hardened.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou didn\u2019t know her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe knew me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom looked confused.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe made my quilt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe hid Victor\u2019s continuity records inside it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom\u2019s expression changed from grief to astonishment.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe actually did it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou knew?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe threatened him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is the original archive?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mom looked down.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder the first house.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat first house?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe house Victor used before he became Paul.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cho immediately searched records.<\/p>\n
Mom gave an address outside Joliet.<\/p>\n
Property records showed an old farmhouse once owned by Martin Vale.<\/p>\n
One of Victor\u2019s identities.<\/p>\n
The structure had burned eighteen years earlier.<\/p>\n
The land remained vacant.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder it where?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStorm cellar.\u201d<\/p>\n
Agents were dispatched.<\/p>\n
Excavation began that evening.<\/p>\n
The cellar entrance had been buried beneath concrete after the fire.<\/p>\n
Ground-penetrating radar found a chamber.<\/p>\n
Inside were metal cabinets.<\/p>\n
Documents.<\/p>\n
Photographs.<\/p>\n
Passports.<\/p>\n
Boxes.<\/p>\n
Decades of stolen lives.<\/p>\n
And one body.<\/p>\n
Male.<\/p>\n
Old remains.<\/p>\n
Not Lillian.<\/p>\n
Not anyone investigators expected.<\/p>\n
A wallet preserved nearby contained identification.<\/p>\n
PAUL DAVID MERCER.<\/p>\n
The real Paul.<\/p>\n
The man supposedly lost in a boating accident.<\/p>\n
Victor had not merely stolen the identity after Paul died.<\/p>\n
He had killed him first.<\/p>\n
The forensic team found another object beside the body.<\/p>\n
A notebook.<\/p>\n
Water damaged but partly readable.<\/p>\n
Paul\u2019s handwriting.<\/p>\n
He had discovered Victor and Elizabeth\u2019s early fraud.<\/p>\n
He planned to report them.<\/p>\n
His final entries named Victor Hale.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth Mercer.<\/p>\n
And Robert Bennett.<\/p>\n
Then one sentence appeared three pages from the end.<\/p>\n
Victor says Robert can solve Teresa.<\/p>\n
I read it twice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody knew.<\/p>\n
Dad had claimed Victor killed Teresa.<\/p>\n
The video suggested Mom delivered at least one blow.<\/p>\n
But the real Paul\u2019s notebook, written years before Teresa died, connected Dad to something involving her.<\/p>\n
Monroe ordered another search of Robert\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
Old phone records were impossible.<\/p>\n
Employment records were not.<\/p>\n
Dad had worked with Teresa.<\/p>\n
That fact had never surfaced.<\/p>\n
Same company.<\/p>\n
Same department.<\/p>\n
For almost a year.<\/p>\n
Before he met Mom\u2014or before he claimed he met Mom.<\/p>\n
Then Cho found a photograph in Paul\u2019s archive.<\/p>\n
Robert and Teresa together.<\/p>\n
Alone.<\/p>\n
Years before Olivia was born.<\/p>\n
On the back, Paul had written:<\/p>\n
R says E can never know.<\/p>\n
My chest tightened.<\/p>\n
R.<\/p>\n
Robert.<\/p>\n
E.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth.<\/p>\n
I looked at Olivia.<\/p>\n
She was staring at the photograph too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat couldn\u2019t Mom know?\u201d<\/p>\n
Then I noticed the date.<\/p>\n
I did the arithmetic.<\/p>\n
Teresa became pregnant with Emily shortly afterward.<\/p>\n
Monroe understood at the same moment.<\/p>\n
So did Collins.<\/p>\n
Olivia did not.<\/p>\n
Not immediately.<\/p>\n
Then her face went white.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody said it.<\/p>\n
We did not need to.<\/p>\n
If Robert Bennett had been secretly involved with Teresa Mercer before Emily\u2019s birth, our family tree might contain one final lie larger than all the others.<\/p>\n
Emily might not merely be Olivia\u2019s sister and my cousin.<\/p>\n
She might also be my father\u2019s daughter.<\/p>\n
My half-sister.<\/p>\n
And if Robert\u2019s relationship with Teresa continued longer than anyone admitted, the same question applied to Olivia.<\/p>\n
For several seconds, nobody spoke. Then I laughed. Not because anything was funny. Because apparently my family had reached the stage where every betrayal contained another betrayal underneath it. \u201cEthan … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13296,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13272\/revisions\/13296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}