“But you were,” a voice said at his back. Andrew spun to find Raven standing in the entryway to the kitchen. “I got there after she was dead. Lily was with Belle, and Jack was home the whole time. That only leaves you.”

Andrew swallowed, darting a glance at the back door. “I never meant to hurt anyone. The gun was supposed to be loaded with blanks. By the time I realized she’d put real bullets—”

“What gun?” Jack asked, opening the back door. Andrew’s head whipped toward him, then back to Lily. Then to Raven.

“The gun. None of it was supposed to be real! I was only trying to scare her, and once we had the pills, we could sell them and pay off Evelyn’s debt. No one was supposed to get hurt, but she tried to wrestle the gun away from me. She scratched me, and the gun went off. It was so loud.”

“What are you talking about?” Lily demanded, her cheeks drained of color. Dawn was still two hours away, and yet Jack could see everything in the kitchen. The cracked countertops. The rusty faucet that dripped every few seconds. And the unhinged man stumbling toward Lily, his legs trembling beneath him.

“Your mom said we could be a family. She said I had to prove that I could look after you, and if I did this one thing, she’d know that she could rely on me. The Holloways were Rose Hollow old money. Their ancestors had helped found the town. If I cleaned out their pharmacy, I’d have enough money to take care of you, and she’d let me see you again. She’d let me be your dad.”

The world swayed at Jack’s feet, and he told himself that everything was not sliding into place. Andrew had fled the scene of Evelyn’s murder. He had not been at the pharmacy the day Arianna had been shot. He had not carried the gun that killed her.

“No.” It was Lily who spoke the word, her eyes widened in shock. “No, you aren’t making any sense. You followed me to Raven’s house the night of Mom’s murder. You heard us talking in the kitchen.”

“That isn’t what happened.” Andrew reached Lily’s side, and in spite of everything, he took her face in his hands. In spite of everything, she let him. In the seconds that followed, Raven crept up behind Lily, guiding the shears from her purse. There was no time to stop it. Jack was disoriented, and Lily was mesmerized, staring into her father’s eyes for what could be the last time.

Men could fall so easily. Jack knew it as Raven passed Lily, nearing Andrew Kane’s back. When Raven lifted the shears, Jack felt all the breath rush out of his lungs, and out of the room.