“If these audit trails are authentic, your father could not have done this alone.

Someone else was signing off on the internal distribution ledgers.”

She did not need to say the name.

My mother.

Patricia had managed the trust’s administrative books for years.

She had handled all the family paperwork, quietly, in the background, the dutiful wife keeping the records.

And on the night of the assault, she had not tried to stop my father.

She had encouraged him.