You refused to see that she needed help!” And Marcus leaned forward across the table, and said, in a voice that left no room in the world: “Do not ever speak my daughter’s name again.” Sarah broke down, sliding from denial into pleading, claiming Julian had manipulated her, that the estate taxes were overwhelming, that she had only wanted financial stability for their family.

And then she said the thing that ended it.

“At the end of the day, that house was going to belong to Lily anyway!” And Victoria raised her eyes from her notepad, unhurried.

“Which is precisely why,” she said, “you had zero legal or moral right to conspire against a minor child in order to control it.” Sarah understood, a beat too late, what she had just admitted in front of an officer of the court.

The meeting ended shortly after.