“You killed her.” Raven wrapped his sleeve around his fist. He would punch his way out of this car if he had to. He would try, because his father wasn’t taking him to visit his mother. He was kidnapping him. “You killed Evelyn, and then you framed Belle for the murder. You must’ve found her recipe out in the orchard while you were pruning the trees. And you kept it all these years.”

“I wanted to ask you about it when you came home! I tucked it away in the garage, and forgot about it, until…” Dr. Holloway winced as if he’d been struck. “Until Evelyn was lying on the kitchen floor. And you were on your way home. I knew the police would take me away from you if they figured out what I’d done, so I planted the recipe in the kitchen, figuring it would send them in another direction. I had no idea the flowers had come from Belladonna’s yard. I had no idea she’d snuck over to the house earlier that day.”

“You left her in a juvenile detention center! Anything could’ve happened to her in that place. And instead of letting her out, you gave Jack a false alibi and abandoned Belle—”

“Everything I’ve done, I’ve done to keep us together.” Dr. Holloway fumbled with his key chain, looking for the button that would open the front gate. The car came to a stop as they drew near. “You’re the only family I have left.”

“I have a family,” Raven whispered, staring at his reflection in the glass. He thought maybe he’d see his mother’s eyes. Her warm, wide smile. But all he could make out were his own dark curls, and the curve of his father’s jaw behind him. This was not his family. This would not be his life. Raven took a single, shuddering breath, and slammed his fist into the glass.

There was a sharp, sudden sound, like a blade puncturing a balloon. But it had come from outside the car. Cringing, Raven rubbed at the glass with his sleeve, trying to glimpse the outside world as his father hit the gas. The car stuttered forward unevenly, like the vehicle itself had been drugged, and then it stopped.

Dr. Holloway cursed, unhooking his seat belt. He unlocked his own door—only his own—then slid out of his seat, his body instantly swallowed by the darkness. The door shut and locked at his back. Raven scrambled into his father’s seat. His knuckles were throbbing from where they’d slammed into the window, but there were noises outside the car. Voices he recognized. With trembling fingers, he pushed the lock up, yanked the handle toward him, and then he was tumbling out of the car.

He looked up to find figures in the darkness.