“She doesn’t have the codes, Julian. I keep the ledger in my office safe, and she’ll never get near it.”

“I don’t need the ledger,” I said, my voice steadier than I expected.

My father turned his glare to me.

“Be quiet, Ava,” he said. “You have no idea what you are dealing with.”

“I know you stole my future,” I said. “I know you took my inheritance to pay off Brandon’s margin calls.”

“We did what we had to do to protect this family,” my father said.

“You protected Brandon,” I corrected him. “You always protect Brandon.”

“Brandon has a future,” my father said. “He is going to build something. You were always going to be fine, Ava.”

“Fine?” I asked, a bitter laugh escaping my lips. “I am facing sixty thousand dollars in debt for a degree I couldn’t even finish because you took my tuition money.”

“It was a temporary loan,” my father said.

“It was fraud,” Arthur said.

My father took a deep breath, trying to control his temper.

He reached into his coat pocket, but his hand came out empty.