My father pointed at Adrian.
“This man manipulated us.”
I looked at him.
“And you accepted ten million dollars for your daughter.”
No one answered that.
Marcus tried another approach.
“Evie, come on.
You know we were desperate.”
I reached beneath the table and lifted the folder.
His eyes fixed on it.
That was when I knew he recognized the cover.
“Where did you get that?” he asked.
I opened it.
“You gave most of it to me.”
For the first time in my life, I watched my older brother become afraid of me.
“Those are company documents.”
“They’re copies of documents you repeatedly ordered me to destroy.”
My father’s attention snapped toward Marcus.
“What documents?”
Marcus ignored him.
“You had no right to take those.”
“Interesting,” Adrian said.
“You haven’t asked whether they’re real.”
Marcus’s face reddened.
“Stay out of this.”
Adrian’s voice remained calm.
“You came into my house.”
My father grabbed one page from the table.
He read three lines and turned on Marcus.
“You moved the advance?”
Marcus spread his hands.
“It was temporary.”
“The contract prohibited it.”
“We needed liquidity.”
“You gambled with collateralized funds?”
There it was.
Not denial.
Not innocence.
Only anger that Marcus had endangered the rescue my father believed he had purchased.
I watched them turn on each other while Adrian remained silent.
Then my mother whispered my name.
“Evelyn.”
I looked at her.
She wasn’t staring at Adrian.
She was staring at the pages.
“How long have you had those?”
“Three years.”
Her eyes closed.
That reaction told me she knew more than she had ever admitted.
Adrian saw it too.
“Mrs.
Mercer,” he said quietly, “did you know about the waterfront development?”
My father stepped between them.
“Don’t answer him.”
My mother looked at her husband.
Then at me.
