“The liquidator is coming on Thursday morning,” Rylan said. “I told him Calla is down-sizing. He is going to bring a truck.”

“Make sure he takes the grandfather clock first,” Solene said. “I hate that thing. It ticks too loudly.”

“I will,” Rylan said. “I already have the inventory list ready.”

I held the phone near the gap in the door, my heart pounding so hard I was afraid they would hear it through the wood.

“We are almost there, Pax,” Rylan said. “Just a few more days of keeping her quiet, and we are free.”

“I just want this over with,” Pax said. “I don’t like playing the villain.”

“You aren’t the villain,” Solene said. “You are helping your brother secure his future. Calla would have lost this house to taxes eventually anyway.”

“That is a lie,” I whispered to myself, the words dying in my throat.

I had always paid the property taxes on time, using my salary from the clinic.

They had been intercepting the mail.

That was why the tax notices had stopped coming to the front door.