“My father paid him.”

“He told Marcus to make sure Sadie wasn’t pretty enough to keep your attention anymore, Wyatt.”

“He said if she was ruined, you’d leave her, and the inheritance would stay within our family.”

Detective Harper looked down at me, his jaw tightening as he listened to the transmission.

“And your part in this, Melanie?” Wyatt asked.

“How did she end up at the warehouse that night?”

“I set the trap,” she confessed, a note of twisted pride slipping into her panic.

“I texted her from Arthur’s old phone number.”

“I told her Arthur wanted to meet her there to hand over the original property deeds.”

“She was always so trusting, so incredibly naive.”

My thumb hovered over the screen, ensuring the recording software was capturing every single syllable.

“And the blackmail against me?” Wyatt asked.

“The altered financial files?”

“We fabricated them,” Melanie stammered, the sound of her pacing hitting the microphone.

“My father and I altered the digital ledger to make it look like your firm was skimming from the estate.”

“We were going to destroy your reputation if you didn’t give me fifty percent of your company.”