I heard the sound of pages turning rapidly over the receiver.

“Natalie, this isn’t just standard accounting,” Sullivan said, his voice dropping an octave. “This looks like a second set of books.”

“A second set?” I asked.

“He has handwritten entries dating back three years,” Sullivan explained. “There are columns of numbers next to the names of your family’s trust accounts.”

My heart hammered against my ribs.

“He was transferring money,” I whispered.

“Huge sums,” Sullivan said. “It looks like he was moving blocks of fifty and one hundred thousand dollars at a time.”

“Where was the money going?” I asked.

“To a holding company registered in the Cayman Islands,” he said. “But we also found personal bank statements in the safe.”

“His personal accounts?”

“Yes,” Sullivan said. “He had massive debts, Natalie. He lost nearly two million dollars in overseas real estate ventures that collapsed last year.”

The pieces of the puzzle finally began to lock into place.

That was why Ethan had been so desperate to get his hands on my inheritance.

That was why he had pushed me to sign the trustee management papers.