“Yes, but he doesn’t have anything to do with what I discovered. I hit the medical lead when I went searching for my records. Things kept piling up until I made the connection. Someone from the Tylwyth Teg confirmed that spina bifida is a common condition among those with their blood. Someone from the Cwn Annwn confirmed the deal they made, and then they set me on the Tysons’ trail. My father had nothing to do with any of that.”

A lie, but I could tell I pulled it off.

“He would admit to it. He wants—” She looked up. “He needs you to believe in him, Eden. He needs you to believe he’s not a killer. At heart, he isn’t. He’s just a man who would have done anything to help his little girl. Those two things collided—the gentle man and the devoted father—and one had to give. It was never going to be the father. Never.”

And there it was. The confession. I sat there, processing it, accepting it. That came more easily than I might have expected. There’d been such a slow build to this moment, so many possible answers, so many times I’d been certain the answer would be “my parents are sociopaths.” Gabriel was right—this was a good answer. Imperfect but acceptable.

“Okay,” I said. “I understand why you did it—”

I was going to say I understood even if I didn’t agree, but as soon as I said “you did it,” she flinched, and I stopped.

“It was both of you,” I said slowly. “Wasn’t it?”

A shot in the dark. But when I took it, the look on her face, guilt and more, so much more . . .

“It was him,” I whispered. “All him.”

Her head snapped up. “No. Never. It was a joint decision and a joint action. We both—”

“No, you didn’t,” I said. “He did. Only him.”

“I . . .” Her mouth worked, panic filling her face as if she was trying to get the words out and couldn’t. “I . . .”

“Why are you in prison, then?” I said. “If it was my father, and only my father—”

“I couldn’t do it,” she blurted. “My nerve failed and I failed. I failed you. I wasn’t strong enough. He told me the deal, and I refused to consider it. So he did it without me knowing.”

“But you were together on those nights.”