“It means they don’t pay a bank,” Voss said. “They pay a company you now own.”

“And they are four months behind on those payments.”

My phone buzzed against my ear with an incoming text from my mother.

I pulled the phone away from my ear for a second to look at the screen.

The message from my mother was brief.

*Maren, stop ignoring Dorian. He is trying to secure our family’s financial future and you are blocking him. Sign the papers.*

I pressed the phone back to my ear.

“I just got a text from my mother,” I told Voss.

“I imagine you did,” Voss said.

“They don’t know, do they?” I asked.

“That you own the debt? No,” Voss said. “They believe they are making payments to a private investment group called Apex Financial.”

“And Apex is the shell company my father set up?”

“Precisely. Your father purchased the note when Dorian tried to refinance the house to fund one of his failed shipping ventures.”

I looked out the window of my small office on the Texas base.