They spent days at the desk, working through the ledger page by page.

Emmett had spent years draining the inheritance Lorelei had left specifically for Rosalie — timber-company shares, land, an investment trust set to pass to her on her marriage or her thirtieth birthday.

But the worst of it sat in a blue folder.

The documents laid out direct payments to an accountant, a local journalist, and a city official — all linked to the scandal that had ruined Manuel’s father.

“My father was framed,” Manuel said, barely able to get the words out, realizing Emmett had destroyed his family because the elder Nelson had uncovered the fraud.

The floor seemed to drop out from under Rosalie. “I was seventeen then. Locked in a room. I knew nothing about what he was doing.”