“Why now?” I asked.
“Because I saw you in court,” he said. “I saw that you had stopped hiding. And because someone sent me a copy of a file from Crown Ridge two weeks ago.”
Daniel straightened. “Who?”
“I don’t know. It came with no name. Just a note.”
He reached into his coat and removed a folded envelope. The paper was worn, as though he had opened it many times.
Daniel took it, photographed it, then read aloud.
When Iris stands, tell her the first lie was not Jason’s.
A chill moved through me.
“The first lie?” Clara whispered.
Thomas nodded toward me.
“There is something else you need to know.”
I braced myself.
He looked suddenly older.
“The Mitchell Adaptive Port System—the invention Jason claimed, the one you designed—it wasn’t the first version.”
