Callum was convicted on every count and sentenced to forty-five years without parole.

And Sabine, facing the weight of the conspiracy charges, chose to cooperate, and her testimony filled in the last gaps of how they had meant to carve up my family once I was in the ground.

For her cooperation, and because of the child, her sentence was reduced — but she lost every claim, every share, every thread that had ever tied her to the Ludlow name.

Chapter 16 — The Strap He Threw Into the Bay