“What part?”
“That her father was the informant. That we took her in to protect her from the people he exposed.”
“And she hated you for it.”
“She hated everyone,” Mom said. “Including you.”
That hit harder than I expected.
“Why would she hate me?”
“Because you had the life she wanted. The company. The name. The future.”
“And she had a shadow identity that could never come into the light.”
Dad turned back to me.
“We hid her for nineteen years. We gave her every resource except visibility. We thought that was love.”
“But it wasn’t,” I said.
“No,” he whispered. “It was control.”
I thought about Daniel and the way he had gradually convinced me to distance myself from my family—to see Dad as paranoid and Mom as cold.
“Daniel knew.”
Mom nodded.
“He somehow found out.”
“And he used it.”
“Just as Claire used him.”
I tightened my grip on the phone.
“She’s using him now.”
Dad reached for my shoulder.
“Emily, you don’t have to go tomorrow.”
“Yes, I do.”
“It could be a trap.”
“It is a trap,” I said. “But if I don’t show up, she wins. Daniel wins. And the company collapses under a lie.”
Mom straightened.
“What are you going to do?”
