Not anyone’s.

It was never going to be there for you.” I let that land, and then I said the thing I most wanted my son to hear: “Ask her why she researched your trust before your second date.”

The foyer went still.

Because it was true, and it was on record.

A lawful forensic review of a company laptop Sabine had borrowed weeks before had turned up her searches, time-stamped and undeniable — his inheritance, spousal rights, the mechanics of challenging a trust, the process for declaring a person incapacitated.

She had not fallen in love with my son and then, later, been tempted.

She had walked toward him already holding the blueprint of how to take him apart.

The wedding had never been a wedding.

It had been an acquisition, planned from before the second date.

I have turned this over many times, because it is the coldest part of the whole affair and, in its way, the most instructive.