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. –

“The corporate transfers?”

“Temporary.”

“The attempt to establish Dad as incapacitated?”

Her eyes filled with tears.

“I was desperate.”

I looked at her for a long moment.

“You were organized.”

That landed harder.

Desperation misses details.

Desperation panics.

This had involved lawyers.

Title searches.

Financial projections.

A revoked authorization.

A medical narrative.

Months of planning.

Julian slowly backed away from her again.

Then my second phone vibrated.

One message.

I read it.

Martin watched my face.

“What is it?”

I turned the screen toward him.

Daniel Mercer.

ARTHUR’S FINAL ESCROW RELEASED. CHECK WITH HALE.

Martin’s expression changed.

“Oh.”

My mother noticed.

“What now?”