alive.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re alive.”
“I wanted to come home.”
I pulled back.
“Then why didn’t you?”
Her face changed.
“Because of Ava.”
“Vance?”
She nodded.
“He threatened her.”
“How?”
“Photographs. School routes. Medical records. Everything.”
“So you disappeared.”
“I had to make him believe Calvin had the only surviving version of me.”
“Leah.”
“Yes.”
“Did Leah know?”
“No.”
Melissa looked devastated.
“She became collateral damage.”
“Where is Vance?”
Her expression hardened.
“Gone.”
My stomach dropped.
“He escaped?”
“Ten minutes before the raid.”
“Where would he go?”
Melissa looked at my father.
Dad swore.
“The trust office.”
“What?”
“The original trust documents.”
We ran.
The Grant trust records were held in an old law office on the edge of town.
My grandfather had used the same firm since 1958.
When we arrived, the front door was open.
Inside, cabinets had been emptied.
Papers covered the floor.
The senior attorney, Arthur
