“Incapacity?” Abigail said.

Lawson kept reading aloud. “He proposed obtaining a medical certificate describing you as suffering severe cognitive impairment, so the two of them could control your accounts once the prize came through.”

Spencer knew every small lapse his mother’s exhaustion had caused — the misplaced keys, the missed dentist appointment, the sleepless nights in the hospital.

In those messages he had offered them up as evidence that she could no longer make her own decisions.

“You were going to have me declared incompetent,” Abigail said.

“Garrick said it was a protective measure,” Spencer whispered.