Julian Callahan opened the folder slowly, as though giving me time to brace. “The car, the Chanel, the diamonds,” he began. “None of it came from your son’s salary. Your daughter-in-law opened three credit lines in the past year, and two of them are in Colin’s name without his knowledge.” He slid a page toward me. “But that isn’t the part you need to prepare for.” He paused. “Rowena has been in contact with a family law attorney. She’s building a case to have you declared unfit to be around Oliver, so she can block you permanently. And she’s been telling that attorney you’re mentally declining and financially dependent.”

I read the pages twice. She had not simply evicted me. She was constructing a version of me, an old woman losing her mind, so that no court, no relative, no friend would ever believe a word I said. Julian watched my face. “There’s one more thing,” he said. “She doesn’t know about Desmond’s money. But she’s been searching. She hired someone to look into your finances three weeks ago.” My hands, which had been steady for months, finally went cold. If Rowena found the three and a half million before I acted, she would find a way to take it, and to bury me under the story she was already telling. I looked up at Julian. “Then we move first.”