“Gabrielle is family, Mr. Hall. But she needs firm boundaries. She’s always been a difficult, manipulative girl — grief has made her worse.”

“I’m not treated like family,” I said. I hadn’t meant to speak. It came out barely above a whisper, but the room was so quiet that it reached everyone.

“Family isn’t made to work every day for six years without a single cent.”

Agatha’s face flickered. Her hand came up again. Bruce Hall stood.

He did not hurry. He simply rose from his chair at the end of the table and walked its length and stopped, and by the time he reached us he was standing between me and her, and her raised hand had nowhere to go.

“Your funding from my foundation ends today,” he said.