There was no anger in my movements, only a cold, quiet precision.

I paused, my finger resting on the send key.

I heard the girls downstairs.

Hazel and Ruby were laughing, their voices muffled by the heavy rug in the hallway.

They were home from their playdate with the neighbor.

“Mommy!” Ruby called out from the bottom of the stairs.

Her small footsteps began to climb.

At the same time, the screen of my personal cell phone lit up.

It was a number I recognized but did not have saved.

It belonged to Gloria Ralston.

I pressed the send key.

The blue progress bar slid across my computer screen and vanished.

The email was gone, routed directly to Marcus’s secure inbox at Vanguard Properties.

With that single tap, Graham’s showroom on Oak Lawn was as good as dead.

He had exactly twenty-one days before his current lease expired.

His grand launch was scheduled for twenty-four days from now.

“Mommy!”

Ruby burst through my office door, her blonde curls bouncing around her face.

She threw her small arms around my knees, smelling of summer heat, playground dirt, and sweet juice boxes.