Chapter 245

For a second, everything Elias has built himself around cracks straight down the middle.

The years of anger. The reason he walked into this house under a false name in the first place, the mole work, the months of calculated proximity to a family he’d convinced himself deserved every ounce of what he was planning to do to them. All of it rests on a single foundation, one name attached to one death, and David has just knocked the entire structure sideways with four words.

“What, um…” Elias begins, because it’s the only thing his mouth can produce right now. “What?”

David sits down slowly across from him. “Take a seat, Elias.”

Elias sits, though his legs don’t fully cooperate with the request.

“Your father and I met at nineteen,” David begins. “We were randomly assigned roommates first year of university in Brown. I was there on my parents’ savings. He was there on a scholarship, worked two jobs on top of a full course load just to keep himself afloat