But it broke something in her to see how a thing built out of love could be read by the loveless as an instruction, and she understood that this, too, was part of what she was reclaiming: not just her body, but her grandfather’s intention, rescued from the use her husband had tried to make of it.

Chapter 18 — The Motive

The silence in the office was total.

The forced surgery four years ago had not been an accident, and it had not been panic.

Dorian had seen, in the fine print of a family trust, the single legal obstacle between himself and total control of her grandfather’s company — and he had removed it while she slept, then spent four years comforting his wife over a loss he had engineered.

Silas covered his face.