thousand dollars in unpaid debt?”

The number stunned Leah.

Her debts came from caring for her father before his death.

She had never discussed them inside Blackwood House.

“You searched my records.”

Celeste released her.

“I protect myself.”

“From what?”

Leah looked down at Noah.

“A six-day-old baby?”

The dining-room doors opened.

Graham stood there.

In his hand was the brass key.

Leah instinctively touched her pocket.

Empty.

Then she remembered.

That morning, before Graham left, she’d placed the key inside the inner pocket of his travel coat while he spoke on the phone in the front hall.

She hadn’t known whether he would find it.

He had.

Graham entered and placed a bank envelope on the table.

“I opened the box.”

Celeste went pale.

“And I know what you did three months before Elise died.”

The envelope contained copies of Elise’s genuine estate documents, a video recording witnessed at the bank, correspondence from her attorney, and records showing that someone had obtained confidential information about Elise’s new plan before it was executed.

That information mattered because Elise had changed the structure of her inheritance after becoming pregnant.

Her son would receive her protected stake in the Harrow family holdings through a trust.

Graham would serve as one trustee.

An independent fiduciary would serve alongside him.

Celeste would have no authority over Noah’s assets.

The arrangement shouldn’t have affected Celeste personally.

But it threatened something she’d quietly spent years building: influence over Graham’s decisions and, through him, influence over the family’s wealth.

Graham laid the questionable placement document beside Elise’s genuine signature records.

“This signature isn’t hers.”

Celeste denied knowing anything about it.

Then Graham deliberately mentioned that Elise had recorded concerns about being pressured to change her estate plan.

Celeste made her mistake.

“Your sister was trying to give everything to that child.”

Graham stared at her.

“I never told you what the new plan said.”

Celeste froze.

A knock came from the hall.

Margaret Sloan entered with Daniel Price, a junior employee from the Harrow family’s legal office.

Daniel looked as though he hadn’t slept.

Three months earlier, he’d accepted twenty-five thousand dollars to secretly provide Celeste with a preliminary copy of Elise’s estate plan.

He’d told himself it wasn’t theft because Celeste was Graham’s wife.

Then Celeste asked for more.

She wanted schedules.

Draft documents.

Information about which attorney Elise was using.

Finally, she asked him to send internal correspondence showing when Graham would receive notice of the final plan.

Daniel refused that last request.

But he kept the messages.

Celeste stood beside the fallen chair, staring at him.

“You approached me,” she said.

Daniel shook his head.

“No.”

“You said you needed money.”

“After you asked whether I wanted to make some.”

Graham turned to Margaret.

“And the placement authorization?”

“My office never prepared it,” Margaret said.

“Could Elise have signed it elsewhere?”

“Anything is possible.

But we found an electronic draft of a nearly identical document on Daniel’s office account.”

Daniel swallowed.

“I didn’t create it.”

Celeste laughed sharply.

“Convenient.”

Daniel reached into his jacket and produced his phone.

“I kept the message where you sent it to me.”

The room went silent.

Celeste’s face drained.

Graham didn’t reach for the phone immediately.

He looked at his wife as though hoping she would give him