Even now — even holding the proof that the woman he’d defended had arranged to have his wife killed, had killed his children in the doing — some part of Nathan Ashford still could not bring himself to be the one who turned her in.

“Get out,” I said.

“Emma — ”

“Get out of this room before I call security and have you removed from it.”

Chapter 8 — The Seventieth Birthday

A week later, it was Aldous Ashford’s seventieth birthday — Nathan’s grandfather, the patriarch of the whole family.

Nearly every important business figure in Dallas would be in the room.

I decided that room would be my stage.