“I just let you keep going until the proof was airtight,” I added.

Sylvia stared at the hidden recorder sitting on the side table.

“Mother, please, you have to understand—Jason pressured me into this,” she pleaded.

Jason rounded on her, his face twisting with rage. “Don’t you dare pin this on me. You wanted the money just as much as I did.”

Their fragile alliance cracked and fell apart in a single breath.

Samuel set another document on the table, his expression stern.

“Sylvia, your inheritance has been formally suspended pending a full investigation,” he said.

“And Jason, you’ve been removed from every position within the company, effective immediately,” he added.

“You can’t remove me,” Jason snapped, his voice cracking. “I’m the chief executive officer.”

“You were the officer,” Samuel corrected him.

Sirens began to wail in the distance, getting louder by the second.

Sylvia grabbed my sleeve, tears streaming down her face. “Please, Mother, I’m your daughter. You can’t do this to me.”

I looked into the face of the woman I’d once comforted after childhood nightmares and defended through every selfish mistake of her adult life.

“You texted me to ask if I finished the drink,” I said, pulling my arm free.

“I was just worried about you,” she sobbed.