Arthur read, and I watched his face turn slowly to stone.

It was an amendment to the family trust.

And it had been filed, according to its own dates, years after Marcus’s grandfather had died — which is, on its face, a strange thing for a dead man’s trust to acquire.

It contained a single, surgical clause: that any biological first-born grandchild born outside of Marcus’s primary marriage would take precedence, over a substantial portion of the family estate, above any children born within it.

Every adult in that room turned, at the same moment, to look at the small boy — six years old, born outside Marcus’s marriage — now sitting on the sofa, swinging his feet.

Rachel understood the direction of the looks before I did, and she pulled Leo protectively against her side.