I walked over, pulled her head to my chest, and kissed her hair. “A marriage that only survives because one person is too terrified to ask questions is a hostage situation, my sweet girl. And you are not a hostage anymore.”

Clara looked up, her eyes hardening with a fresh, unfamiliar anger. “What do we do, Mom? If he finds out I know, he’ll destroy the evidence. I’ll go to jail.”

“We need a confession,” I said. “A recording of him admitting he forged your name and set you up. But it means you have to go back into that house tonight.”

Clara swallowed hard and wiped her tears. “I’ll do it.”

Chapter 4 — The Wire

We equipped Clara with a micro-recorder hidden inside a pearl pendant.

That night I sat in an unmarked surveillance van three blocks from the Vance estate, listening through an earpiece with Julian beside me.