"After she turned away from me at graduation, I thought it was best that I never show my face near her again. I thought she'd told you that she'd seen me. And then I felt horrendously guilty and afraid that you'd both start looking for me."

"Dani didn't want to believe you were alive, nor did she want to upset me, so she stayed silent. The first time I knew you were alive was when I got the call from the hospital saying my mother was dying." I paused. "Did you talk to Max before he shot you?"

"Yes. He confronted me after I left school on Tuesday. He had found me through the video that went viral. I'd always stayed out of the limelight, but that night I'd had no choice but to do what needed to be done. I never imagined the clip would spread to so many news outlets."

"What did Max want?"

"The stones and Rachel," Laura answered. "I said I didn't know where the stones were and that I hadn't seen my sister in twenty years. Max made a lot of threats, but I was able to get away when some of my students interrupted our conversation. I sent Rachel an emergency text. She didn't get back to me, and I didn't know what to do. I needed to warn her. I also needed to leave. But then your father showed up the next day and I had a really unpleasant scene with him. It was all starting to unravel. I decided I would leave town after the concert. I didn't want to leave the kids in the lurch. I thought I could find a way to stay away from Max for a few days, but he wasn't having that. I was told he shot me in front of my house."

"You're lucky he didn't kill you," I said.

"I know."

"Is it over now?" I asked. "If Max is part of some crime family, won't there be others who want the jewels? Who will want revenge for Max's death?"

"Max and his friend Jonah did the Holden heist on their own," Rachel said. "If it had gone as planned, Max would have bragged about it and used it to bolster his position in the organization. But because it was a total screw-up, he couldn't tell anyone that he'd killed someone and had lost the stones. It was better for him to stay quiet." Rachel paused. "To answer your question, we're safe now because both Max and Jonah are dead. There's no one else who knows anything about the robbery."

"But the family will know that Max is dead," I pointed out. "Couldn't they want revenge just for that alone?"