Diana doesn’t answer. The only sound is a clock ticking in another room and a light snore coming from the fur ball on her lap. She stares at me and I stare at her, but she doesn’t say a word.

“This means all signs point to Paul. Your beloved son, the last of the three with both motive and opportunity. You’re really going to let him go to prison for something he didn’t do?”

She waves off my words with a hand. “It’ll never come to that. I’ve already retained the best defense attorney in the South, who assures me Paul won’t get much jail time, if any. And they can’t prove something that never happened. Whatever evidence the police have on him for Sienna’s death is purely circumstantial.” But she doesn’t sound very certain.

“You people are bonkers. Do you know that?” My rising tone wakes the dog, who jumps to its feet on Diana’s lap, yipping. She slides a hand around its snout like a muzzle. I was crazy to think this woman would ever accept me into her family, just like I’d be crazy to let a murderer anywhere near my child. “There’s not enough money in the world to make me want to stay in this family. You’re unhinged.”

“I’m just a mother protecting her son.” Her gaze dips to my belly. “You’ll understand soon enough.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. I’ll never understand. You killed a woman to protect your son’s secret and in the process blew his life to smithereens. You deserve everything you have coming to you.”

Her eyes narrow into slits. “Is that a threat?”

I stare at her across the teacups and that ridiculous dog, and my heart gives a warning thud. It wasn’t a threat, not an intentional one at least, but she’s already killed one woman to keep her son’s secret. Maybe it was a crime of passion—an impulse, a threat that threw her into a sudden rage—or maybe it’s something more sinister. Maybe she lured Sienna to the lake, to a place where the murder weapon was within reach. Either way, who’s to say Diana wouldn’t do it again?

Leave.

Suddenly, it’s the only thing I can think about, getting out of this house, this family. I glance around the room, taking inventory. The cut crystal figurine, the base of the candlestick, the pokers by the fireplace. For the first time, I am afraid of the woman before me. I have no doubt she saw silencing Sienna as a necessary sacrifice to protect Paul, but Diana’s reasoning is just as faulty as her son’s. Loyalty can’t cancel out a wrong. Love, no matter how big and broad, can’t balance these scales.

Only justice can.