I watched Margaret’s face.

The color slowly drained from her cheeks, leaving her skin looking paper-thin.

“That is corporate fraud, Adrian,” Grace said, her voice dropping to a deadly whisper. “And it is a federal crime.”

Adrian looked at his mother, his confidence completely fracturing.

“Mother, she is bluffing. It was just a clerical mistake. We needed the filing completed before the quarterly audit.”

Margaret did not look at him.

She was staring at the forged signature on the paper.

Her hands, usually so steady, trembled slightly.

I saw the exact moment she realized what her son had done.

He had not just tried to cheat me and Lily.

He had put the entire Whitmore empire in the crosshairs of a criminal investigation.

If the bank realized the signature was forged, the credit line would be pulled immediately.

The Whitmore Grand project would collapse.

The family name would be dragged through the mud.

Margaret’s eyes shifted from the paper to Adrian.

There was no motherly warmth in her gaze now.

It was the look of a cold strategist deciding which branch to cut to save the tree.