“I can’t leave right now,” Phoenix said.
“We’re going over to Eric,” I said to him.
“I’ll stay with Elyna,” Phoenix said quietly. “Put me on speaker when you get there.”
Eric’s house was warm when we walked in, lights dimmed low. Harmony was in the kitchen, but one look at Becket’s face told her this wasn’t small.
“Come,” Eric said, leading us toward the den.
Phoenix was already on FaceTime by the time we sat down. His screen showed the soft glow of a lamp behind him.
“What happened?” he asked.
Becket didn’t ease into it. “Dad knew,” he said.
“Knew what?” Eric asked.
“That Maggie Chabot’s death was really meant to be a hit on Kyle Jansen. He knew Bellerose ordered the hit, and he didn’t arrest him because he thought the charges wouldn’t stick, and that made Mom angry enough to leave.”
The room went dead quiet. Phoenix’s face drained of color through the screen. Eric stared at the floor for a long moment. “You’re saying he knew the truth about what happened by the river… and never shared it?”
“Yes,” Becket snapped. “Remember the damn letter we found in the attic? That’s what it was about.”
Phoenix swore under his breath.
“We need to call Bean,” Eric said quietly. Bean was our nickname for our youngest sister, Isabelle. She was living in Philly with her famous hockey player husband.
I nodded.
Becket Facetimed her. She picked up with a smile that vanished the second she saw our faces.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Becket didn’t soften it for her either. He laid it out the same way he had for us. By the end, Bean was crying silently on the other end of the call.
“He let us think she just left,” she whispered.
Luc’s arm appeared around her shoulders on the screen. He didn’t interrupt. Just held her.
Phoenix rubbed his jaw. “He cracks now? Because of Claire’s friend? Because she’s digging?”
“That’s what kills me,” Becket said. “Claire shows up chasing answers about Sophie, and suddenly Dad’s ready to confess.”
I swallowed hard.
“He watched her obsess over that case, and that triggered him,” Becket continued. “But he never once thought maybe we deserved to know why our mother walked out.”
Eric leaned back in his chair slowly. “I blamed myself,” he admitted quietly. “For years. I thought I wasn’t enough. That I did something.”
Bean nodded through tears. “I thought she left because I was too much work.”
Phoenix looked down. “I thought it was because I was getting into trouble.”
Becket’s voice went low. “I figured I was too angry. That she didn’t want to raise a kid who looked at the world like I did.”
Their words hit like blows. I stared at my hands. “I thought she left because I wasn’t worth staying for,” I said finally.
No one laughed or dismissed it. We all carried the same wound. Just shaped differently.