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. –

Four had realized they had been given an incomplete story.

And the fifth had never been hers.

The irony was almost perfect.

Almost.

Then the associate on the laptop said, “Mr. Hale, there is one more item.”

Martin turned.

“What?”

She held up a white envelope.

Unlike the first letter, it was not addressed to me.

It read:

FOR VICTORIA — ONLY IF SHE DENIES EVERYTHING.

My mother stopped breathing.

Even Richard turned back.

Martin looked at me.

“Your father authorized release if the conditions were met.”

“Were they?”

Martin glanced at Victoria.

“Yes.”

The associate opened it.

Inside was a typed transcript and a memory card.

My mother suddenly shouted, “Turn that off!”

Too late.

Martin inserted a copy of the audio file into his laptop.