Sabrina hesitated. Then: “Renata.”

My mother-in-law.

The same woman who had poured me tea and warned me I was in danger.

I felt sick — not because I was surprised, but because some part of me had already known, and had been waiting only for the confirmation.

We kept digging, and the picture filled itself in: transfers, phone records, companies steered through proxies, and at last, recordings.

Renata Ashford had been working with Cyrus Blackwood for years.