Ryan encouraging my mother to consolidate her accounts.
Ryan becoming irritated whenever Dad refused to throw away old files.
Ryan crying at my father’s funeral.
Ryan carrying the coffin.
Ryan standing beside my mother while she shook.
Had any of it been real?
Then Vega said something I had not expected.
“There’s a final file.”
I looked at her.
“It’s from your father.”
“My father?”
“Ryan scanned it, but apparently never found the original.”
The letter was dated four months before my father died.
Kelsey,
If you ever read this, I hope I was wrong.
Those were the first words.
My father’s handwriting leaned slightly to the right.
Steady.
Familiar.
I sat down.
I read.
He wrote that Ryan had begun asking unusually detailed questions about Asterion.
That Ryan had once entered his study without permission.
That a folder had been moved.
That Thomas had confronted him.
