frozen on the laptop screen. Carmen’s face was still visible in the corridor, her mouth captured halfway through the sentence that had changed everything.
Before you do anything foolish, you should ask your daughter what Javier discovered inside that condo.
I sat beside Sofia and reached for her hand.
Her fingers were icy.
PART 3 — THE ENVELOPE BENEATH THE FLOOR
The moment Daniel Mercer’s recorded face vanished from the television, the room seemed to lose all its air.
Alexander was staring at me.
Sofia was staring at me.
Marcus was staring at me.
And for the first time in twenty years, I could no longer pretend that the rainy night at Blue Harbor Apartment 17 had been meaningless.
It had been the beginning of everything.
“Caroline,” Alexander said quietly, “what happened in that apartment?”
I sat down because my knees would no longer hold me.
“There was a storm.”
Alexander’s expression tightened.
