I have thought since about that moment — the instant Dexter played his most monstrous card and learned it had already been taken out of his hand.

He had intended, I understood, to leave me not merely poor but dead, to corrupt the very doctor who was meant to bring my child safely into the world.

It is the single most evil thing anyone has ever aimed at me, and I did not have to sit with it as a live danger for even one full breath, because the people who had come for me that morning had gotten there first.

The auditors who traced the trust had traced the bribe.

Dr.

Thane had been arrested before dawn and replaced, quietly, days earlier, by a physician of Lucinda’s own choosing.