My mother locked me in a room with five high-powered lawyers and expected me to sign away everything my father had left me. What she didn’t know was that I wasn’t the ordinary government employee my family had always dismissed me as. I was Colonel Sienna Sterling, commander of a specialized military intelligence unit, and while she thought she was cornering a grieving daughter, I was quietly counting the five attorneys around the table and waiting for them to discover that I had prepared an ambush of my own. –

“You would either dismiss it or use it when it made you look important.”

Her lips parted.

“You never asked what unit I commanded. You never asked why I missed Christmas two years ago. You never asked why Dad flew to Virginia just to have breakfast with me after my promotion.”

I paused.

“You only asked how much the government paid me.”

Julian lowered his eyes.

My mother’s voice dropped.

“Arthur turned you against me.”

“No. Dad spent his life trying to stop us from turning against each other.”

I looked at the letter again.

“That may have been his biggest mistake.”

Victoria’s attorney quietly pushed the inheritance waiver away from himself.

“We are not proceeding with this document tonight.”

My mother glared at him.

“I hired you.”

“Yes. And I am advising you not to proceed.”

“Then you’re fired.”

He stood.

“That may be wise.”

The second attorney closed his briefcase.

Then the third.

The fourth followed.

My mother watched four expensive lawyers abandon the table in less than a minute.

Only Martin remained.

Five had entered her ambush.