explain it to the judge.”
Marcus slammed the door.
“Anna, call off your lawyer.”
“No.”
It was the first time she had ever answered him with one word and no apology.
“You are making a mistake.”
“The attempted sale was your mistake.
The hidden account was your mistake.
Naming Clara’s company on my insurance policy was your mistake.”
“That policy was part of an estate plan.”
“Then explain the email.”
Silence.
Marcus recovered quickly.
He always did.
His voice softened into the controlled tone he used in meetings when he wanted other people to feel unreasonable.
“Come home, Anna.
We can discuss this privately.
You are exhausted.
You just had a baby.
Patricia is frightening you with paperwork you don’t understand.”
For four months, that tone might have worked.
It had made Anna question whether she was too sensitive, too tired, too suspicious.
Now she could hear the mechanism inside it.
“I understand every page,” she said.
“I organized them.”
A car door closed outside his house.
Marcus walked to the front window.
Clara was coming up the path with a black suitcase in one hand.
Beside her was a woman in a gray coat carrying a leather briefcase.
Marcus swore under his breath.
“Who’s there?” Anna asked.
He ended the call.
Clara rang the bell twice, then knocked with the side of her fist.
Marcus opened the door only far enough to block the entrance.
“What are you doing here?”
Clara pushed the suitcase toward him.
“You left this in my room.”
Her face looked different outside the hotel.
There was no champagne, no flattering light, no private joke between them.
She looked frightened.
The woman beside her stepped forward.
“I’m Julia Mercer, Ms.
Wynn’s attorney.”
Marcus looked from Julia to Clara.
“Attorney for what?”
Clara folded her arms tightly across her coat.
“You told me the money was from your business account.”
“It was.”
“Your wife froze it this morning.
My bank called.
They said the transfers are under investigation.”
Marcus lowered his voice.
“Not on the porch.”
He moved aside, and they entered.
Clara saw Anna’s ring on the counter, the open legal folder, and the preservation order in Marcus’s hand.
“She left?”
“Temporarily.”
Julia picked up the corporate-registration page without touching anything else.
“This says Wynn Strategic Consulting received two hundred eighty-four thousand dollars in eleven months.”
Clara’s mouth opened.
“You told me it was ninety.”
Marcus shot her a warning look.
“Do not discuss numbers in front of your attorney until I understand what Anna has done.”
Julia gave him a level stare.
“My client is discussing numbers with me because the company is in her name.
The tax liability is in her name.
The invoices appear to describe services she did not perform.”
“They were legitimate consulting payments.”
“What consulting did she provide?”
Marcus did not answer.
Clara looked at the documents spread across the counter.
Her gaze stopped at the insurance form.
“What is that?”
Marcus reached for it, but Julia got there first.
She read the beneficiary designation, then the email attached beneath it.
Clara took a step backward.
“Why is my company on Anna’s life insurance?”
“It was temporary.”
“You never told me.”
“Because it didn’t concern you.”
Julia placed the page down carefully.
“It concerns her enough that I am
