For the first time in days I could hear it without the noise of someone else’s anger drowning it out.

PART 7

By nine o’clock the following morning, Brandon and Brenda were seated inside the top floor glass boardroom of Sterling Crest Wealth Management in downtown Grand Rapids.

Brandon adjusted the silk tie of his designer suit, looking thoroughly smug beside their family corporate attorney, Douglas Bennett, who had requested an emergency meeting to discuss what he called an aggressive marital asset audit.

Across the broad conference table sat Lauren Vance, Russell Hayes, two state financial fraud investigators, and me, wearing an ironed navy blazer while Hazel rested safely in the building’s monitored nursery downstairs.