Page 10 of Sacrifice

I gritted my teeth and straightened my shoulders. “I’ve never shared my notes with my father. Or anyone, for that matter.”

He lifted a placating palm. “We don’t think you did it on purpose. We think Adam may have accessed the notes without your knowledge to gain extra insight into the goings-on in Alderwood. Insight that ultimately aided his group in their abduction of Rosamund.” He paused and gave me a hard look. “In fact, we think your father may have even encouraged you to come up here to ensure that you’d obtain all this necessary information for him.”

“Hold on.” I slowly shook my head and raised a hand. “Firstly, I didn’t even know about any tunnels here, so my notes didn’t include information on that. Secondly, most of my notes are kept on my laptop in an encrypted file, and the handwritten ones are locked away in a safe. No one can view them except me. And thirdly, it was entirely my decision to come here. My father had nothing to do with it. In fact, as you know, he’s activelydiscouragedme from coming here.”

“That’s not true, though, is it? About it being entirely your decision to come here.” Augustus raised a brow. “You told me that you and your father have been in conflict for years over the issue of our alleged guilt in regard to your mother’s case. You also told me he recently disinherited you over it. Perhapshe did so as a sort of reverse psychology trick, anticipating that you would likely react by coming here to complete your mother’s research, as an act of defiance against him. Then, unbeknownst to you, he would be able to use your research to shape his abduction plan.”

My mind was spinning like crazy. Every single lie I’d told to get into this place had come back to haunt me. Now, the Covenant could be planning to go after my father as revenge for kidnapping Rose, even though he had absolutely fuck all to do with it. However, if I admitted that it wasmebehind the kidnapping, I wouldn’t be able to stay here and figure out a way to spirit Rose out of here to safety. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Shit, shit, shit.

I exhaled deeply and leaned forward. “I can assure you, my father has no access to my notes. Also, until I was admitted to the hospital recently, he was in Canada. He couldn’t possibly have taken Rose.”

“Like I said, we believe he is the leader of a large group of outsiders who were behind Rose’s disappearance. He didn’t personally come up here and take her. He simply masterminded the scheme.”

“Augustus, I know my dad hates you, but he’s not the sort of man who would agree to abduct and hurt a young woman. Whoever took Rose… it wasn’t him. I’m willing to swear to that on my life.”

He pursed his lips and leaned back. “I suppose we will have to agree to disagree on the matter of his culpability.”

“I have a counter-theory, if you’re willing to consider it.”

His eyes widened slightly. “Of course. Go ahead.”

“Those messages you received—it could’ve been a cruel trick played on you by some nasty locals.”

“A trick?”

“Yes. After I arranged the aerial search for Rose, word would’ve gotten around town about her being missing, and you do business with quite a few people in the area, so any one of them could’ve shared your phone number with this group of pranksters. They may have sent the messages purely to mess with your head, knowing how frightened you were because she was missing,” I said. “Also, this would explain why the sender claimed to have Rose as a hostage, even though she was clearly free the entire time. I mean, how else did she get back here? She couldn’t have done that if she was tied up in someone’s basement, could she?”

“We believe she found a way to escape their clutches. She’s always been a smart girl.” Augustus tapped his chin. “But your theory… I suppose it could make sense. People can be cruel and twisted. Even total strangers.”

“No.” Jean-Pierre finally spoke up, his eyes narrowed. “It was Adam Thorne. I feel it in my bones. He’s wanted us gone for decades. All of us.”

“That’s true.” Anger flared in Augustus’s eyes again. “It would be very convenient to him if we all disappeared, wouldn’t it?”

I sighed. “Listen, I really don’t think my father would ever do such a thing. Not even to someone he hates. But I can look into it for you, and if I find out he actually abducted and imprisoned Rose, I’ll call the police right away. I won’t let something like that slide just because we’re family.”

“How exactly would you look into it?”

“Well, firstly, I can try to figure out who sent those ransom messages to you. Any half-decent private investigator could find out.”

Jean-Pierre’s forehead wrinkled. “That’s actually possible?” he asked. “I know that outsiders can trace phone calls, but Ihad no idea you could trace numbers themselves, even when the phone isn’t in use.”

I nodded. “You definitely can. Whoever sent these messages to you probably used a burner phone. That’s a phone that isn’t attached to a named account. But the numbers for burners can usually still be traced.”

“How?”

I twisted my lips in faux contemplation. “Well, the SIM card that the number is attached to can usually be traced back to the exact location where it was sold. Then it’s a matter of looking at security footage from the store in question,” I explained, knowing full well that the bodega I’d bought the burner from didn’t have any cameras in it. “So I can look into that for you, if you like.”

Augustus nodded slowly. “That would be very helpful.”

“You might think it’s a moot point because Rose has escaped her captors and is once again safe with us,” Jean-Pierre added stiffly. “But we won’t stop until we find out who took her.”

“I understand. Completely,” I said, meeting his hard gaze. “And like I said earlier… I owe the Covenant my life. So even if it turns out my fatherisbehind this, I’ll be on your side.”

“Thank you, Sebastian,” Augustus murmured, eyeing my empty teacup. “It means a lot.”

“It’s no problem. I’m just glad Rose is okay.”

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