“I defended her,” Fergus whispered.

“I treated you like an enemy for years, because she told me you hated us.”

“She needed you to hate me,” I said.

“If we ever really talked, the truth would come out.” He looked at the folders, the journal, the tape.

“What are you going to do now?” “The right thing,” I said.

That afternoon Bettina filed a criminal complaint with the State Attorney’s office — grand larceny, forgery, real-estate fraud — and petitioned to freeze the estate’s assets pending audit.

I want to be honest that it did not feel like triumph.