Three billion two hundred million dollars of my family’s fund was going to disappear into a fraud, and no one outside that poisoned inner circle had any idea.

There was one more thing, and it mattered enormously.

Months earlier, Crestview had already extended SwiftFreight a bridge loan — two hundred and forty million dollars — and the contract on that loan contained a clause as clean and sharp as a blade: if the company was found to have provided fraudulent financial records, the entire sum became immediately due.

Gavin had signed it himself, certain he would never be caught.

My father closed the file with a long, heavy breath, and I understood that Gavin’s whole kingdom was now standing on a trapdoor, and that I was holding the lever.