“Your mother made the decision,” Marcus said. “She said a scandal would destroy the IPO.”

“How much did she pay you?” Alexander asked, his voice shaking with a quiet, lethal anger.

“It doesn’t matter,” Marcus said.

“How much?” Alexander demanded.

“Fifty thousand a month,” Marcus said. “Into a offshore account in Belize.”

The sheer scale of the betrayal made me dizzy.

Fifty thousand dollars a month just to keep a mother and her twin sons in the dark.

“She wanted weekly reports,” Marcus continued, his voice sounding flat, almost detached. “She wanted to know if Emma ever tried to cross the state line.”

“And if I did?” I asked.

“I was instructed to intervene,” Marcus said. “To make sure you stayed where you were.”

I looked down at my hands, realizing how close we had been to disaster every single day.

Every time I took the boys to the park, every time I applied for a new job, we were being watched.

“You’re done, Marcus,” Alexander said. “Your access codes are already being revoked.”

“It’s too late for that, Alexander,” Marcus said.