“What is it?” Martha asked, coming up behind me.

“He froze the Westside files,” I said, my voice barely a whisper.

“And he’s using my mother’s hospital debt to prove I can’t feed our sons.”

My phone rang in my pocket.

The screen showed Daniel’s name.

I slid the bar to answer and pressed the phone to my ear.

“Did you get the paperwork, Emily?” he asked.

His voice was calm, measured, and entirely devoid of warmth.

“You can’t do this, Daniel,” I said. “Those clinic records belong to my family.”

“The Westside Clinic was acquired by Carter Enterprises ten years ago,” he said.

“The archives are proprietary corporate property.”

“You are hiding what your father did to my mother,” I said.

I gripped the paperwork so hard the edges crumpled in my fist.

“I am protecting my family’s reputation from a desperate woman,” Daniel said.

“You have forty-eight hours to clear your mother’s outstanding balance at Metropolitan.”

“If you cannot pay, the hospital will transfer her to a state-run facility.”

“And the family court will rule that you are financially incapable of providing a stable home for Lucas and Mason.”