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Josie was glad it was dark enough that Alec couldn’t see the disappointment on her face. What Erica knew would lead her to Noah. She was sure of it and yet, that information remained out of reach—maybe permanently so at this point. Acid roiled in her stomach. Her chest constricted.

No. She would find another way.

“You know,” Alec continued, “when I got back to the room and Erica wasn’t there, I thought she ran off. Since she wouldn’t tell me what the hell was going on, we, uh, talked about some other stuff. You were right about everything. Erica’s mom—Bonnie or Bethany or Lila or whatever the hell her name really was—left her with my brother. Everyone thought she was dead, but Erica knew the truth. An eight-year-old kid abandoned by her mom, and having to keep that secret.”

Lila didn’t always have sensible reasons for the things she did. She couldn’t have known that Kiernan would pass away and leave their daughter with Alec and his wife—the perfect targets. There was no end to Lila’s scheming but sometimes she just got bored.

“She was in on it, you know? My daughter helped that woman blackmail me.”

Josie nodded.

Alec barked a laugh. “You knew that already, didn’t you?”

“It was just a theory,” said Josie. “It wasn’t my place to tell you.”

“I figured it out—between all the stuff you told me and Erica confirming her mom wasn’t dead when we adopted her. I confronted her tonight and she told me the truth about that, too.”

“I’m sorry.”

“The only person who should be sorry is that evil woman.”

“Did Erica say why Lila left her behind?” Josie asked.

Alec shifted, digging inside one of his pockets. “She wouldn’t tell me that, but she did say that a few years later when her mom got back in touch and needed help with this whole blackmail scheme, it was because she was sick. Dying. She told Erica she needed the money for treatment. That probably wasn’t even true.”

“I don’t know if that’s what she used the money for but she did have cancer.”

He found what he was looking for in his pants pocket, curling a fist around it. “Imagine using an eleven-year-old kid like that. Manipulating her into taking those photos. Makes me sick. Erica held onto the secret for so long. Until now I had no idea the guilt was eating away at her. She thought if I found out, I’d hate her. I never saw her so scared, so upset as I did tonight when she told me that she thought I’d stop loving her, stop being her dad.”

Josie looked over at him. “It’s because of the way Lila raised her. Unconditional love is a myth to someone like Erica. You always worry that you’ll do something wrong or that the person who loves you will find out that you’re broken and leave.”

“I tried to tell her that’s not how this works.” Alec opened his fist and let a thin chain fall through his fingers. A necklace. He rolled the charm around in his palm. “You know, I never thought about kids before my brother showed up with Erica. My life seemed fine. Wife, career, nice house. It was boring but I figured that’s what adulthood was supposed to be like. Then this little person showed up and sure, she was fragile and damaged and shut down, but she was also smart and funny and kind and just a really cool kid. She needed us. Needed me. All of a sudden, I had a purpose. It was so clear. My job was to be her dad. I wanted to be her dad. It was easy. Even the hard shit was easy because I loved her in this completely selfless way that I didn’t even know was possible.”

Now emotion battered against Josie’s shield. What Alec described was exactly what she and Noah hoped to give a child one day. Listening to him, she liked the idea of giving that kind of love to a child who might not have grown up with it otherwise. But that dream was dead, and her husband might be as well.

Seventy-nine hours.

“I don’t regret it,” Alec said, his voice low and throaty. “Not one fucking thing. Not the embezzling or the way people treated me when I got caught. Not losing my career, my marriage, my house. I’d do it again and again. I tried to tell her that. You wanna know the worst part?”