Lou tapped his long, sticklike fingers on the desk and tilted his head to the side. “Records have been destroyed, lost. And yes, your family is disproportionately affected by unfortunate events, but it’s not bad luck. It is for a reason.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk. “In any given set of people, particularly people who are related by blood, you’ll find patterns, genetic anomalies that cause any number of diseases and afflictions.”

My heart sank. “I knew it. There’s something in my genetics, right? Something fatal? What is it?”

Lou shook his head. “Your blood relations have been blessedly free of cancers, heart disease, issues of that nature. However, your family has also experienced an unusually high number of homicides, suspicious accidents, and declarations of deaths after someone has disappeared.”

My skin pricked up. “What?”

“There have been twelve unsolved homicides in the last six generations of the Colchis family,” said Lou. “Four drownings. Three unsolved disappearances.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“Marie’s beloved Astraea was murdered.” He glanced at Karter, and thankfully didn’t reveal the date of her death. “Perse Colchis in 1904 of a blow to the head. Phoebe Colchis in 1945 by drowning . . . ​in a dry bathtub. Adelaide in 1953 of strangulation. The murderer was never caught. Eurydice Colchis in 1984, stabbing. The list goes on and on.”

“All these people were dying in this town and nobody thought that was worth looking at?” I asked.

“No,” Lou said. “Because if you looked at the causes of death released to the public, you’d see nothing of consequence other than some hereditary flaw or unfortunate accident that sent them to their maker.”

“Wait,” I said, my head spinning. “Are you saying someone lied about their deaths? Why? Why not just tell the truth?”

“There are reasons. I assure you,” Lou said. He started to say more but stopped himself.

“Do you want to go?” Karter asked me suddenly. He stood in front of me, his back to Lou. “We can leave if you want.”

“No, I’m okay,” I said. “Just give me a minute.”

He stepped aside but kept his shoulder pressed to mine.

“I need to know what happened to Circe and—and Selene.”

Lou’s mouth turned down. “Selene was your mother, wasn’t she?”

“My birth mother, yes,” I said.

Lou took a deep breath. “I will try to be as delicate as one can be about these things, though I imagine this will be difficult to hear. Selene was found in a wooded area on her property. She suffered a gunshot wound to the upper chest. It was fatal. A homicide.”

“Somebody killed her?” The room tipped and I leaned against the wall to steady myself. Karter put his hand on my shoulder. “And nobody looked into it?”