Lauren looked up. Ethan’s face hardened.

“Did he say you could start over where no one knew you?” Claire continued. “Did he tell you he had enough money for both of you, but it had to be protected until the right moment?”

Lauren’s lips parted. “How do you know that?”

“Because he promised me the same thing.”

The room went silent. Claire had been twenty-eight when Ethan proposed. He’d shown her photographs of a small coastal town in California, said they could move there once the Chicago projects were done — a white house near the water, a quiet street, a life without pressure from her father’s company.

Two weeks before the wedding, she found the missing funds. He insisted the money was only being moved temporarily, to protect them from the company’s debts.