“You’re right,” she murmured, close to Lily’s ear. “You told us a hundred times your mother doesn’t leave evidence, and that’s why we can’t go to the police. But maybe you could break out of here.”

“And then what?” Lily ran a hand through her shorn hair, and Belle wondered if she’d chopped it off before she’d come here. And why. “There’s a girl in the facility who looks a bit like me, and she’ll be eighteen in a couple of months. She said I could have her ID if I wanted to run, but I don’t know where I’d go. And I can’t stay here forever.” The way she’d said it… it was like she wanted to be locked in this place, far away from Holloway Manor. From her mother. From the man who’d promised to adopt her but hadn’t had time to sign the papers before she was sent to this facility.

“Lily.” Belle touched her hand, and Lily jumped as if she’d been struck. Her cheeks flushed pink. Tears welled in her eyes. “What about your dad?” Belle asked, drawing back her hand. “Your biological—”

“No, he’d never want me. He left my mom because of me.”

“Did she tell you that?”

Lily nodded, her eyes downcast. “She told me he left when I was three years old. They were so in love before she had me, but I was too much for him.”

“She could’ve been lying. God, Lily, for all we know she absconded with you in the night, whisking you away to some faraway state while your dad was sleeping.”

Lily’s lips twitched, and after a minute, she smiled. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe he didn’t abandon me. But my mom didn’t abscond with me either. I was born at the Rose Hollow Medical Center. My mom has pictures of me as a newborn, and you can see signs from the hospital in a couple of them.”

“Raven’s dad works at that hospital,” Belle said, an idea forming in her mind. “If he gave me a reference, maybe I could get a job as a filing assistant. I could track down your birth certificate and see if your dad’s name is on it.”

“You would do that for me?”

“Why not?” Belle shrugged as if it were no big deal. “You’re going to give me the Recipe for the Perfect Murder. Right? That way, your mom can never find it. It has my name on it, and if she ever put two and two together…” Belle bit her lip, trying to look panicked. Trying to look scared. “You’ll keep her from hurting me, and I’ll keep her from hurting you. Once we have your dad’s name, it’ll be easy to look him up online.”

“Unless his name is Joe Smith or John Johnson.”