“You wore that to Mom’s funeral?” my sister said with a sneer, the diamonds on her wrist catching the light as she adjusted the Valdderee heels on her feet. “I mean, I know things are hard for you, but couldn’t you at least have made an effort?” I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. I had designed this “cheap” dress myself. I owned the label on her shoes. I owned the boutique we were standing in. And one hour earlier, I had personally approved the cancellation of her modeling contract. Then my brother’s bank made the news…

“What do you want?” I asked directly.

“Nothing,” she said, and her voice didn’t waver. “That’s what I came to say. I want nothing from you. I just needed someone to know that I know… that not everyone in your life has been blind.”

After she left—pressing my hand with surprising warmth—I felt an unexpected crack in my carefully maintained composure.

One person had seen through the façade.

One person had looked beyond the surface.

It was more than my family had managed in twenty years.

The afternoon accelerated through various feeds.

I watched my father’s meeting implode. The investor—someone I’d had Dmitri warn off yesterday—didn’t even show. Dad sat in the restaurant for an hour, pride keeping him at the table long after hope had fled.

Blake’s situation worsened by the hour. The FBI expanded their investigation, finding threads connecting him to a dozen other schemes. His lawyer—the public defender he’d scorned as barely qualified—advised him to consider a plea deal.

And Rachel had spent the morning dragging suitcases to a storage unit.

Her Instagram stories were notably absent for the first time in years.

At 3:47 p.m., I received the call I’d been expecting.

“Elise.” My father’s voice held a tremor I’d never heard before. “I need you to come to the house. Family meeting. It’s urgent.”

“I’ll be there by seven.”

“No. Now, please. I… we need you now.”

The please almost made me waver.

Almost.

“Seven,” I repeated. “I have business to finish first.”