She paused, listening to someone on the other end.

“No, Julian.

Marcus still thinks the arrangement is meant to safeguard Lily’s inheritance.” Marcus lifted his head.

Ryan reached over and paused the video, and for a long moment, neither man said anything at all.

There it was, in Sarah’s own voice: the man named Julian, the reference to the arrangement, the flat confirmation that Marcus was being deceived about the very thing that was meant to protect his daughter.

His wife had drugged his child, filmed the results, and was coordinating with a stranger to build a case, and she believed, in that recording, that her husband suspected nothing.