Page 20 of Her Dark Lies

“Anyway, Gran’s nurse said you needed to speak to me?”

Ana smiles, but it’s tremulous at best. “Yes.”

“What is it?”

“I thought you should be made aware of something.”

“What’s that?”

“The body they found? The bones draped at the pier? We believe... It’s her. It’s Morgan.”

Jack is too stunned to speak. Horror sparks, deep in his gut. Now? Of all times, now the bitch washes up?

This is insanity. This is impossible.

This is dangerous.

This is very, very dangerous.

There was a narrative. A well-planned, well-thought-out, well-executed narrative. It had taken extensive effort to make it work. For the media. For the police. For those few outside the small circle of family who knew the truth.

My wife died when she fell off the boat.

My wife died when she fell off the boat.

My wife died when she fell off the boat.

He’d even identified the partial remains of the body months later, for God’s sake.

And now, with the events in Nashville, they have another narrative to keep track of.

Jack finally gathers himself. “How do you know? What makes them think that it’s her, after all this time?”

His voice sounds remote, lost, even to himself.

“The bones of the hands have the deformity she was born with, that bend in her pinkie finger.”

“Fuck.” He ignores his mother’s wince—she hates vulgar language—paces a few steps away, then back, then away again. “There’s nothing that can be done. I have to tell Claire. I can’t keep this from her.”

Ana lights another cigarette, blows blue smoke toward the ceiling. “Let’s not get hasty. I know this comes as a shock, Jackson. It was a surprise to us, too. No one ever expected her to actually surface. But we have a plan, we always have had one, just in case.”

“Another plan, Mother? The last one nearly took us all down.”

“And who’s fault is that, Jackson?”

“I’m not like you, Mother. Lying isn’t my strong suit.”

Ana’s lips tighten but she continues on. “If you stick to the plan, there won’t be any problems. We’re going to share that the DNA tests have shown this is Elevana, Fatima’s mother. It’s been so many years since she went missing, without exceptional scrutiny of the body by outsiders, the identification will hold. The documents are being fixed as we speak. Karmen has already taken care of things.”

Of course, she has. Karmen is beholden to the family too deeply. There is nothing she won’t do to keep them safe. She’d offered to take the blame for Morgan’s death herself when the accident happened. Jack wouldn’t hear of it.

He runs a hand through his hair. “How do you know this is really her, Mom? How do you know this is Morgan? Clinodactyly is not that uncommon a malformation. These remains could be from anyone. The hand could have been broken at the time of death, from a fall, just as easily. There’s no way to know for sure.”

Ana’s eyes grow distant. “You’ll just have to trust me, Jack.”

“This is unbelievable.” He feels rage brewing in him, knows he must shut it down until he can figure out the right way through this.

Ana, too, is struggling to keep it together. She’s not used to arguing with her son. Her word has always been the last, and the law. Since Morgan’s death, they’ve clashed too often.