For the first time, she looked genuinely trapped.

She looked over her shoulder at Sarah, but Sarah had turned her back to us completely.

The cicadas in the old oak trees seemed to grow louder, filling the silence.

A fly buzzed loudly against the copper screen door.

Dan let out a long, slow breath.

He looked at his mother as if he were seeing her clearly for the first time in his life.

“Mom,” Dan said.

“I want to see your bank statements.”

Juliette stiffened, her chin tilting upward.

“Excuse me?” she asked.

“I want to see the records,” Dan repeated, his voice gaining strength.

“All of them.”

“From the last three years.”

Just then, the screen of my phone lit up again in Dan’s hand.

It was another text message from the same unknown number.

This time, it was a PDF file with a file name that made my heart stop.

Dan stared at the screen as the preview began to load.

The file name read: *Juliette_Restricted_Trust_Disbursements_2022.pdf*.

Dan’s thumb hovered over the glass screen for a second.