“They ended him because he had the spine his father and his brother never did.” I drove back to the estate carrying that like a stone in my chest — and found that Dax had already opened his counter-offensive.

Chapter 8 — The Smear

Ugly talk was moving through Millhaven like a grass fire.

Dax had worked his country-club network, seeding the rumor that Gus Hansen was my secret lover — laying the groundwork to haul me into family court, paint me as an unfaithful, unstable widow, and strip me of my rights to my son.

It was clever, and it was vicious, and it told me exactly how frightened he was of the will in my possession.

Then it turned from talk to reach.