I looked down at the screen, a sudden, cold dread washing over me.

I pressed the green button and lifted the phone to my ear.

“Clara,” the nanny’s panicked voice came through the speaker. “There’s someone outside the house.”

I gripped the phone tighter, my eyes snapping back to Vivian, who was now smiling a small, cold smile from the top of the stairs.

“Who is it, Maria?” I asked, my voice dropping to a whisper.

“I don’t know,” Maria whispered back, the sound of a distant car engine audible in the background. “But they have a court order.”

I looked at Vivian, and the pieces of her final, desperate play fell into place.

She had known about the debt, she had known about my return, and she had prepared a counter-strike.

“Garrett,” I said, my voice shaking for the first time. “What did your mother do?”

Garrett looked from me to his mother, his face turning pale as he realized what was happening.

Vivian stepped forward, her heels clicking slowly on the marble.

“A mother always protects her family, Garrett,” Vivian said softly. “Even when her son is too blind to do it himself.”