Julian and Chloe’s whole scheme had been built on the premise that my father’s word was worthless.

The cruelest thing I could have done, even in service of convicting them, would have been to put him on that stand and let a lawyer prove their point for them, make him stammer and forget and doubt himself in front of a jury.

So I built the case to make him unnecessary.

The photographs testified.

The forged notary stamp testified.

The dead woman’s name on a document she could not have signed testified.