Chapter 12 - THE PRICE OF A DAUGHTER
Victor did not hang up.
"Ryan," he said pleasantly, "we should stop pretending this is complicated."
Ryan's jaw tightened. "Let Caroline go."
"Bring me Owen and the ledger."
Emma heard her father's name and gripped his hand.
Victor continued. "In exchange, Caroline goes home to Lily."
"And Owen?"
"Owen has been dead for twenty-two years. The paperwork says so."
Owen went white.
Ryan leaned closer to the phone. "You killed my mother?"
Victor sighed. "Your mother was emotional. She was going to destroy several lives over a custody dispute that was already finished."
Ruiz silently started recording.
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one you're getting."
Ryan kept him talking. "Why the walls?"
Victor chuckled. "Because secrets need architecture. Your father understood that. The house was built for people who needed to move unseen."
Ryan looked at the floor plans.
"You picked it before Caroline ever met me."
"I picked many things before Caroline met you."
Then Victor said something that made Ryan's blood turn cold.
"Including which twin came home from the river."
The call ended.
Ryan stared at Owen.
Neither spoke.
Ruiz frowned. "What did he mean?"
Owen's face had gone gray.
"Our father used to switch our names when he was drunk," he whispered. "He said nobody could tell us apart."
Ryan felt the room tilt.
All his life he had been Ryan because everyone told him he was Ryan.
Owen because everyone told him Owen was the one who disappeared.
Ruiz stood. "We verify identities with old dental records, school medical files, anything independent."
Lily tugged Ryan's sleeve.
"Daddy?"
"Yeah?"
She held up the lake photograph.
On the back, in their mother's handwriting, were two names with arrows.
RYAN.
OWEN.
May you like
The arrow marked Ryan's face.
It pointed to the man standing across from him.
