“So you disappeared?” Clara asked, pulling away from him.
His face crumpled.
“No. Not at first. I tried to get help. I contacted an attorney. Two days later, I was in a car accident.”
Daniel’s expression sharpened.
“Accident?”
Thomas looked at the floor of the old observatory.
“I woke in a private clinic three towns away. Evelyn was there. She told me I was lucky to be alive. She told me the official record would say I had died, and that if I stayed dead, my family would be financially protected. If I came back, everything Jason had built around Iris would collapse onto her first.”
“That makes no sense,” Clara said. “Why would you agree?”
“Because I was injured, confused, and afraid. Because Evelyn is very good at making a cage look like shelter.” He swallowed. “And because a week later, your mother received an anonymous payment large enough to save the house after my medical bills had nearly ruined us. I thought if I came home, that money would vanish and the accusations would begin.”
