I knew the way his jaw set when he was denied what he wanted.

“What exactly does she have?” I asked, leaning closer to the phone.

There was another silence on the line.

“Is that the plaintiff?” Helen asked.

“Yes,” Robert said.

“She is here.”

“Vanessa has the login credentials for three offshore accounts,” Helen said.

“They are registered under a shell company called Blue Horizon Investments.”

“Daniel has been funneling cash from the Mercer residential projects into these accounts for three years.”

“She also has the physical ledger he kept in his home office.”

“The one he thought he burned.”

I closed my eyes.

The home office.

I remembered the night he spent hours in the backyard with the fire pit, claiming he was cleaning out old tax files.

He had lied to me about everything, even then.

“We need to see the documents,” Robert said.

“And we need Vanessa’s sworn statement.”

“She will provide them,” Helen said.

“But she needs representation for her custody and child support matters.”

“She wants your firm to refer her to an independent attorney and cover the retainer.”