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My six-year-old nephew dragged his broken leg across seven blocks of pavement to reach my porch, with his starving three-year-old sister clinging to his shirt. I was fixing a loose hinge when I heard scraping on the steps and turned to see Drew crawling toward me, pale, shaking, and whispering, “She locked us downstairs again.” I called 911 before I even understood the whole story. But when he told me about Reena’s punishment room, I knew my brother had died believing a terrible lie.

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business, which had somehow employed every Mercer relative except those expected to perform actual construction.

I stepped in front of Aaron.

“What is going on?”

He sighed as though I were embarrassing him.

“Dad has a plan.”

“For my house?”

Real

Our house.”

“My parents bought it.”

“And I’m your husband.”

Gerald turned toward me. His smile was thin and patient,continue reading …

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