There was no warmth in her eyes, but there was a new expression I had never seen in her before.

Fear.

She turned and walked out of the office, her heels clicking sharply against the hardwood floor until the outer door closed behind her.

I let out a breath I felt like I had been holding for months.

“Grace,” I said, my voice shaking. “Is this real? Did he really do that?”

“He did,” Grace said, closing the blue folder. “He got greedy, Vivian. He wanted the inheritance, and he wanted the new merger, and he thought he could make the rules up as he went along.”

“But what if Margaret calls our bluff?” I asked.

“It’s not a bluff,” Grace said, looking at her watch. “And she knows it.”

Before I could reply, the door to the inner office creaked open.

Lily was awake, her soft coos drifting through the quiet room.

I stood up and went to her, picking her up from her carrier and holding her close to my chest.

She looked up at me with her large, dark eyes, completely unaware of the storm raging around her.