“They weren’t delusions, and Raven’s your son. You should’ve believed him.” A sound from upstairs, like feet hitting the floor. Raven was awake, and Jack couldn’t let him walk in on this conversation. Even now, he was desperate to protect Raven from the ugliness in the world. The ugliness in his family. “Does the detective know about this video? Does he know how Evelyn used it—”

“The video came from Detective Medina. He cleared out Evelyn’s office this morning, and he thought I’d want the video back.” Dr. Holloway swallowed, his gaze flicking to the woman on the TV screen. Raven’s mother was grinning widely, holding her son in midair. Eyes bright. Hair fanning out around her. “One night, in the dead of summer, it was so hot that Raven couldn’t sleep. I think he was nine or ten. Arianna convinced us both to sneak into the community pool that night, and we swam for hours. She was spontaneous. Nothing like Evelyn,” he added, his jaw tightening. “That woman was like clockwork. She got up at the same time every morning. Took a shower at the same time every night, while she let her tea steep.”

“She let it steep?” A chill rippled up Jack’s spine. “Did you tell that to the police? The time of death was—”

“Between eleven and one,” Raven’s dad recited, swaying a little. But he was talking about the time that Evelyn consumed the poison. The belladonna could’ve been stuffed into her teakettle half an hour earlier.

Before Lily got to Belle’s. The words rang out in Jack’s mind, as loud and garish as the silence had been upstairs. It was still silent upstairs, but he could’ve sworn he’d heard the sound of feet landing on Lily’s bedroom floor.

“I have to check on Raven,” he stammered, backing away so quickly, he banged his leg against a mahogany end table. Another piece of furniture that had been shoved into a guest room during Evelyn Holloway’s reign. Suddenly, Arianna was everywhere. Smiling from the walls. Whispering on the television. Jack wondered how long it had taken Raven to bring out his mother’s old things, and when, exactly, he’d had time to redecorate the house. The place had been crawling with cops his first day back. After that, Jack had appeared on the scene, and he’d hardly left Raven alone, except for when he’d been down in this room, watching Raven’s father come undone.

The last time it had happened, Raven had been sleeping sweetly in his own bedroom. This time, Jack had left him wrapped in Lily’s covers, and Jack hadn’t even considered that someone might slip in through the window and creep up to the bed. Someone who had access to Evelyn Holloway’s keys. Someone who knew the security code to her office.