“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Dr. Holloway said calmly, and Raven told himself he might be wrong. He must be wrong. The past four years of his life had been a waking nightmare, and his mind had become a mess of paranoia, giving life to monsters where only shadows should live. Andrew Kane was guilty.

His father was innocent.

Still, Raven glanced back at his drink. The closer he’d gotten to the bottom of it, the more the world around him had started to sway. Had his father put something in his whiskey? “Dad? I don’t feel so good.”

“You need to see your mother.” His father opened the study door, then ushered Raven outside. “We both need to get out of this house, and then we can—”

“I’m not going anywhere.” Again, Raven jerked away from him, but the carpet was bunched up in the hallway. He stumbled, landing on his knees on the floor. According to the police, Evelyn had been found sprawled out on the kitchen floor, her limbs at odd angles and her hair falling out of its curlers. Raven was glad he hadn’t found her like that. Finding his mom had been traumatizing enough.

“After Mom died, I started hearing her voice at night.” Raven pushed to his feet, using the banister to pull himself up. “The police told you that, right? Before you sent me away?”

“You were suffering delusions.” Dr. Holloway yanked open the front door, and Raven’s eyes traveled back to the living room. He was certain those double doors would open at any second. No one burst into the hallway. No concerned faces stared back at him, and no arms reached out to clasp his fingers.

I could call out to them, he thought, his heart slamming against his ribs. I could race out to the orchard and hide there like a kid. But if he ran from his father now, he’d never be able to ask the questions he needed to ask.

He’d never learn the truth.

“I wasn’t delusional,” Raven insisted, striding out the front door. He plodded down the porch steps beside his father. “Evelyn had a recording from when I was little. Mom was teaching me how to swim.”

“You loved swimming together.” Dr. Holloway smiled softly, pulling his car keys out of his pocket. A few seconds later, he was opening the passenger-side door and guiding Raven inside. He was so gentle. So loving. Raven wanted to cry. Why had his father waited until this moment to be tender with him? Why couldn’t he have been this person all along?