My heart thudded in my chest as I processed his words.

The man I had been cleaning up after, the man I thought was my enemy, had been fighting for us.

“Why didn’t you tell me, Julian?” I asked, my voice barely louder than the rain.

“Because you needed to find the documents yourself, Valerie,” Julian said. “If I had handed them to you, my mother’s lawyers would have claimed I coerced her or stole them.”

He pointed to the locked drawer of the desk, which now hung open.

“You found the key, and you found the original trust,” Julian said. “That makes it legal.”

Elias walked over to me and placed a warm, dry hand on my shoulder.

“You did well, Valerie,” Elias said softly. “Your grandmother would be proud.”

“We aren’t finished yet,” Miranda said, her voice dropping to a low, dangerous register.

She walked around the desk, her high heels clicking sharply on the floorboards.

She stopped a few feet from Julian, looking up at him with a cold glare.

“You have ruined this family, Julian,” she said.