I sat with the loan agreement in my hands and read Sienna’s name beside that six-figure figure until the numbers stopped swimming. Four hundred thousand dollars, scheduled to fund the very next morning, all of it flowing from a trust that answered to no one but me. The woman who had told me my voice was irritating had spent three years building her empire on money she believed came from investors and clever connections. It had come from Warren. It had come from me. And now, with a single signature withheld, I could stop the entire expansion before it began.

I looked up at Nathaniel and asked the only question that mattered. “Does Sienna know the funding comes from the trust?” He shook his head slowly. “She was told an anonymous private backer. Trevor arranged the introduction. Neither of them knows you are the source, or that you became sole trustee when Warren passed.” I set the agreement down and folded my hands the way Warren used to when he had made up his mind. For three years I had apologized for existing in my own home. That was over. “Then let’s talk,” I said, “about exactly what I’m allowed to do before tomorrow morning.”