Marisa let the small relief fill her. "That's good, right?"

"Proves he was there. They haven't finished DNA analysis yet, but when they do, they'll prove it's your sister's blood. It's a mountain of evidence."

Marisa let the little bit of good news reach her heart. They couldn't bring Leslie back, but at least they could make sure her killer paid for what he'd done.

Brady continued. "They searched Rick's Audi and found a purse that belonged to your sister. I can't get possession of it, but I thought you'd like to know what they found inside."

"Something important?" she asked.

He took out his phone. "I took some pictures." He navigated through it while he spoke. "I thought you'd like to see." He reached it toward her, and she took it.

On the screen, she saw snapshots of herself, her mother, and Leslie from when they were children. She flipped through them, tears filling her eyes.

"She had a little album she must've carried everywhere with her. It held photos of you and your mother."

"Yes." Marisa's voice cracked. She kept flipping through the pictures on Brady's phone, seeing her own younger face, Leslie's, their mother's. So Leslie hadn't completely wiped them out of her life after all.

"She showed me that when we first met," Nate said. "I'd forgotten."

Brady added, "I thought you'd like to know."

Marisa looked up and nodded. "Thank you, Brady. It doesn't change anything, but, maybe it kind of does. She wasn't who I thought she was, but maybe she loved us, a little. She got pulled into something she couldn't control, and when she did try to control it..."

"She paid with her life," Nate said.

"Another thing I thought you'd like to know," Brady said. "Garrison's old partner, Simon, has been trying to put the new pieces of the puzzle into place. On a hunch, he went to Pamela Gray's house this morning to deliver the news about Richard. He told her what Richard had done, and the woman confessed that she was the one who'd taken the money all those years ago. Seems she wasn't willing to share the information when it was Ana's life at stake, but when Simon suggested that coming clean might help Richard, she told him everything."

"All this time," Nate said, "the money Richard was trying to get his hands on has been in his mother's bank account?"

"Looks like it," Brady said.

Marisa closed her eyes, let the new information skim off her like rocks on a lake. It didn't matter. None of it mattered, because Ana was safe.

"Their twisted family drama has nothing to do with me," Marisa said. "Never did."

"You were just collateral damage," Rae said. "First to Charles, then to Pamela."

"Just the cleaning lady," Marisa said.

Nate's grip became firm. "You were never just anything, Marisa. And you never deserved to be treated that way."