“Because his first wife died. Then, a year later, my mom married him. Her own patient.” Lily set her stack of files on the copier, each containing a different man’s secrets. Fears. Desires. “What if another patient fell in love with her? Someone who realized he couldn’t have her the way he wanted, so he snuck into her house and…”

“Poisoned her?”

Lily nodded, not wanting to speak the words. “If we copy these files tonight, we can search through her sessions to see if anyone mentions having feelings for her. Or spending time together outside of the office.”

Jack placed a stack of pages in the copier’s feed tray. “Even if we find a guy who was obsessed with her, it won’t explain the belladonna in her tea. Whoever did this knew about our plan. They’re using that against us, because one of us didn’t get rid of the evidence.”

“I left it in a tree hollow in the orchard! I don’t know how it ended up in the kitchen, I swear.” Lily’s gaze dropped to her hands. “After Raven went away, you guys wouldn’t talk to me anymore. I think you wanted to forget everything that had happened, and maybe it was too painful to face what we’d almost done, but…” She looked up, and the tears in her eyes were real. There was a sharpness in her throat that she couldn’t swallow down. “You left me in the facility to rot.”

“I didn’t want to! Belle told me to leave you alone. She said what we almost did broke you, and we needed to take some time apart to heal.”

“She told you that?” Lily’s eyes narrowed. “I didn’t want to be alone. I wanted you to come visit me. I wanted Raven to come home. And… that recipe was all I had left of you. The only proof that I’d had friends. I kept it because I knew we weren’t going to use it, just like I knew you weren’t coming back into my life.”

“I’m sorry. I should’ve checked in on you. I shouldn’t have waited until your mother was—”

Jack broke off and Lily’s heart constricted. Just barely. Just for a second. “I want to forgive you, but I need you to help me figure out who killed her. Maybe one of her clients was stalking her. Maybe they broke onto the estate and found the recipe in the orchard. The wind could’ve blown it out of the tree hollow.”

“How likely is that?”