Manuel hesitated a second before he answered, and the silence stung her.

“You’re not responsible for what he did,” he said, reaching for her. “Forgive me — my anger spoke before my reason could catch up.”

At the bottom of the folder was a draft marriage agreement with a forged clause: if Rosalie died and Manuel came under investigation, the entire fortune would revert to Emmett.

With it were photographs of a sharp turn on the highway to Grand Rapids, and a typed note from the family lawyer, Wesley Turner, observing that an accident after the transfer would make the husband the obvious suspect.

The whole shape of it came clear to Rosalie at once. Emmett had chosen a financially ruined man precisely so he could frame him as a greedy murderer.

She was meant to die in a staged accident, Manuel would go to prison, and her father would legally reclaim every dollar he’d stolen.