Sofia’s fists clenched. “I didn’t deny you your grandchild. Bradley knew I was pregnant. He promised he would explain to you and follow me, and I got on that plane hoping he could reconcile you to our marriage. Our love. Because he loved you, too. I knew that, and I didn’t want him to be unhappy. He never appeared. I waited months. I didn’t give up until I was alone in the delivery room holding our baby. I thought I knew him. I couldn’t believe Bradley would leave me alone to bear our child.”

“Don’t,” Elle said.

“Now you are the liar!” At last, Angelica’s voice rose to meet Sofia’s.

Both women were flushed, furious. They strained, ready to physically attack each other.

Elle leaped between the two of them and shouted at the top of her lungs. “Wait! Neither of you ever looked for my father?”

“Looked for him?” Sofia was still furious, but she took a step back. “He abandoned me in my time of need!”

“Looked for him?” Angelica put her fist to her heart. “He was my son. He should have come back and at least told me—”

“My father disappeared and is...nowhere?” Elle slowly and clearly articulated the words. “Where is my father?”

Both women stopped speaking. Adam thought they stopped breathing. They stared at Elle.

She stared back at them, hands outstretched, eyes hot and angry. “My father. My whole life, I’ve hated him for abandoning me. And abandoning my mother. But neither of you know where he is? Neither of you have seen him for twenty-eight years? Where is he?”

Adam had never seen such magnificent righteous indignation.

Nor he had ever seen two women as horrified as Angelica and Sofia.

Angelica turned her head to look up at her home. In a dazed voice, she said, “Oh, my God.”

Sofia breathed, “The Tower.”

From the dais, Mr. Kushan’s gravelly voice arose. “I told you that place was haunted.”

80

THAT EVENING, POLICE REPORTS had been given and taken, crime-scene tape surrounded Adam’s studio and Rune’s shop, and Hammer had been placed under arrest and was in restraints in the local hospital psychiatric ward. His perfect wife announced that he’d been insane for years, she’d wanted to divorce him but had been afraid for her life, and she would now take action.

Adam and Elle, and Sofia and Angelica sat in Angelica’s well-appointed library, sipping wine no one could taste and nibbling appetizers no one wanted, waiting for Angelica to stop playing the proper hostess long enough tell them what she had found in the Tower.

Finally Sofia burst out, “You’re killing me. Please tell me if it’s true. If that’s where he is!”

With trembling fingers, Angelica put down her glass. “You know. You know it is.”

“In the Tower. His tower. But...how?”