Daniel pushed the audit report under the third document in the pile, a four-page formal notice printed on Rebecca Sloan’s blue-lettered legal stationery.

“It’s nothing,” Daniel said, his voice dropping into his smooth consulting pitch.

“Your stepmother is taking routine business transfers out of context to build a story.”

I reached across the dark wood and turned my open laptop sixty degrees toward the middle of the kitchen table.

The glowing screen showed two cached documents side by side.

On the left was the pre-approval draft of the Golden real estate worksheet listing Daniel Whitmore and Melissa Whitmore as co-buyers.

On the right was an email printout sent from Daniel’s private domain to Melissa six months ago.