Page 46 of Crossover

How could I believe her, though? How do you ever believe people who have lied to you?

“You acted so destroyed by Dad’s death.”

“I was destroyed, Ivy.”

But if what she was saying was true…

I turned to look at her again.

“If Dad arranged his own murder and that was supposed to look like murder for insurance purposes, then why did it look like suicide?”

A haunting pain carved deep furrows across Mom’s face, like this same question had plagued her for years. “I don’t know.”

“Think, Mom. Daniel’s the one who ordered Grayson to kill him and stage it. For us to believe it, Daniel must have known Dad was suicidal, but how would he have known that?”

She swallowed harshly.

An unsettling understanding crept through my bones. “Youtold Daniel what Dad was planning.”

“I thought I could trust him, and I was hoping he’d have ideas on how I might talk your father out of it. But I should never have betrayed your father’s trust.”

I told myself it wasn’t fair to be enraged at Mom over that. Daniel was a CIA agent, so chances were, he was highly skilled at pulling sensitive information from people who didn’t want to reveal it. But if she hadn’t told him…might things have turned out differently?

“Daniel was working with the arms dealer, Ivan Vosch, Mom. He must have intercepted that dark web hit. So, why didn’t Daniel just tell Vosch? Why wasn’tItargeted!”

“I don’t know!”

“What would Daniel gain if Dad wasdead? If the arms dealer was calling the shots, why would Daniel risk going against him and his orders to targetme, not Dad?”

“I don’t know, Ivy. I—” She suddenly stilled, several seconds ticking by. “The phone call,” she said to herself, replaying something in her past against all this new information. Like it was a thorn that had never sat well, but by itself, hadn’t grown into a garden of doubt. “I thought your father was just being jealous or paranoid, you know? I mean, by that point, he was seeing danger around every corner, and he’d overheardonephone call. With no details, by the way. He wasn’t making much sense, saying Steve was dangerous.”

“Dangerous how?”

“He thought Steve might know the people moving the weapons. When I pushed your father, he wasn’t a hundred percent sure of what he’d heard.”

“And you just let it go?”

“Steve—I mean, Daniel convinced me Dad must have heard wrong. And I was too focused on trying to talk your father out of killing himself. It was shortly after that, your father died, so the funeral and coping with all that took center stage. I genuinely believed St—Daniel, but obviously, I was wrong.”

Mom’s eyes welled with tears as I processed it all.

I could see the whole thing playing out. Dad—a man who came to many family functions—must have overheard something he wasn’t supposed to, something that implicated Daniel. Not clear what it exactly meant, he’d tried to warn Mom, but with her being so in love, of course she’d assume he’d heardwrong. Especially if Daniel was skilled at making her believe his lies.

But Dad wouldn’t believe him. And my guess was, that would be a huge problem for Daniel—who knew Vosch was planning to hurt me. And if that happened, I could only imagine Dad would be even more inclined to rat Daniel out and ruin his life. But if Dad diedbeforehe could do that…

Problem solved.

Except for one pesky thing. According to what Mom said, Vosch had put the target on MY back. Not Dad’s. So, if Daniel killed Dad instead of me and Vosch found out he’d gone against his orders, then maybe Daniel would be in serious shit with Vosch.

But if Dad were to follow through with a suicide…well, now, that would solve all of Daniel’s problems, wouldn’t it?

So long asno onefound out about Daniel’s role in it.

No wonder my pushing the police was so problematic for Daniel; it wasn’t just the threat of being arrested for murder.

It was the threat that Vosch would find out what Daniel did.

“I’m sorry,” Mom said. “I’m so sorry for everything, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, Ivy.”

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