For years I’d mistaken my mother’s control for loyalty. She managed the family accounts. She selected the household employees. She reminded Elena constantly that she’d married into a family above her station.

I had defended my wife with words.

I had never once done anything that stopped my mother.

That night, while Noah lay under cooling blankets, I opened my laptop.

My mother and sister believed I was an executive who traveled constantly and signed whatever was put in front of him. They’d forgotten I founded the company.

They’d forgotten the house belonged to a private trust under my control.