Sadie blinked at the painful reverberation. “They wanted to make sure I forgot anything I ever knew, I guess. They did this whole brainwashing thing.”

Devlin considered this a moment. “Why didn’t they just kill you?” She picked up her mug but didn’t bring it to her lips. “Sounds like they were waiting for something. Maybe some sort of deal with the DEA or BPD.”

“There was no deal.” Sadie shook her head. “No one knew if I was even still alive.”

“Maybe you just weren’t told about it. Your father could have—”

“He had nothing to do with it,” she snapped, cutting Devlin off.

The other woman held up her hands in surrender. “Okay. Got it.”

Those emotions she didn’t like to feel roiled inside Sadie. She should have known Devlin wouldn’t stop digging. Damn it. “They kept me alive because I was pregnant with an Osorio heir. A boy. Okay?”

Devlin looked as stunned as Sadie felt at having told her. She’d never told anyone that part. Not even Dr. Holden—at least as far as she knew. If she had, he’d never mentioned as much. He would have told her, wouldn’t he? Wasn’t he supposed to share everything that came out during her regression sessions?

Sadie forced away thoughts of Holden. Didn’t matter. The kid had died at birth. What would have been the point of telling anyone? The omitted detail might have kept her story from being considered suspicious and being dissected repeatedly by the BPD and the DEA when she first reappeared. But she couldn’t be sure of anything . . . couldn’t bear talking about it then or now.

Why the hell had she just told Devlin?

Weak. Rattled. Losing her fucking mind. Take your pick.

“You were pregnant. Oh my God. What happened to the baby?”

“It died just before or during birth. I can’t be sure. I only know it . . . he was dead. I saw him. Touched him.” The foggy memory of cold flesh swam in her head. “I guess I fell over the edge completely then, because I went batshit crazy.”

Devlin waited for her to go on. Sadie had gone this far; she might as well tell her the rest. Maybe she was at that batshit crazy place again . . . just a little less violent.

“I don’t remember more than a voice here or there after that. My next real memory is of waking up under that overpass on Eighteenth.”

Devlin absorbed this statement for a bit, then said, “I’m stunned you were able to escape. Why didn’t the old man ever send anyone after you?”

“How the hell should I know?” She tossed back the last of the coffee. How many times had she asked herself that same question? She. Did. Not. Know. “I gotta go.”

“Wait.” Devlin stared at her as if trying to see inside Sadie’s head. “Why would Carlos Osorio send his granddaughter to Birmingham under a fake identity? Particularly considering this is where you live.”

“That’s the million-dollar question, Devlin. Who the hell knows?” Speaking of a million dollars, she thought of the reward the Walshes had offered and wondered what Naomi thought about it. Was that the family’s estimated value of their son’s life?

Sadie felt sick. Devlin asked questions, raised possibilities she didn’t want to think about.

“There has to be a reason,” Devlin countered, pulling Sadie back to the conversation. “Something so important that Osorio would be willing to take the risk.”

Since Devlin appeared determined not to let it go, Sadie took a breath and forced herself to mull over the concept before tossing out a possible scenario. “Isabella was kept a secret. She never left the compound. It’s possible if there has been some sort of trouble in the area, they’ve sent her away to protect her. Birmingham has become a major stronghold for Osorio. He may feel she’s safer here despite my presence. I guess it depends on how bad the trouble is and what his assets here are. Besides, I’m not supposed to remember anything, right? Frankly, what little I do makes basically no sense.”

“Whatever the reason,” Devlin said, “I believe Alice is Isabella, and she’s here. She’s killed at least one girl and tried to kill two others.” Devlin pulled out her cell. “A friend of mine posed as a social worker and spent some time with the woman taking care of Alice—the alleged aunt. My friend said the house is full of crosses. But the strangest part is Alice’s room.” Devlin handed her phone to Sadie, the photo app open.

Sadie’s gaze landed on the masks hanging on the wall. Ghostly white. Two dark eyeholes. Horns protruding from the sides. Fear crowded into Sadie’s chest. This was the kind of mask the child in her dreams . . . or memories had worn. Fingers trembling, she swiped, stared at the next photo. This one showed crude drawings. A bloodred moon in the middle of a paint-blackened page. Yellow flames, flickering across another page. The red coals beneath the flames bleeding.

Doing all within her power to keep her hand from shaking, Sadie passed the phone back to Devlin. She struggled to find her voice. Her heart pounded harder and harder. “You better keep your kid away from this girl, Devlin.”

She’s had some problems . . . we’ve had to be very careful with her.

The words whispered through Sadie’s mind. Eddie’s voice, his words. Had he said this to her about Isabella? Or had he been speaking of someone else?

Devlin’s cell vibrated in her hand. She answered. Listened for a few seconds, then said, “I’ll be right there.” She put her phone away. “I have to go. My daughter needs me.”

“Thanks for giving me a ride,” Sadie managed to say without her voice breaking.

Devlin paused at the door. “Like I said last night, anything you can do to help is greatly appreciated.”

Sadie nodded. “Yeah.”

Devlin left.

All this talk about Alice being Isabella was nothing more than speculation, a potential scenario. A theory. Sadie couldn’t be sure. Maybe her mind was playing tricks on her again. That happened sometimes. Okay, more than sometimes.

But the photos on Devlin’s phone were real. The drawings belonged to Alice Cortez. Dark. Sinister. Those drawings were way too similar to ones Sadie had seen before . . . in that shack or shed at the Osorio compound. The shaking started deep inside Sadie and spread outward, through her limbs.

The place the masked child had led her into the night of that party.