She looked at the paperwork scattered across the desk, then back at Mark.

I could see the tension in her shoulders.

She was smart.

She had joined forces with Mark because she thought he was a winner.

She thought he was going to inherit the entire Hartwell fortune.

But Thomas Bell had already begun filing the injunctions.

Juliette was beginning to realize that the ground was shifting beneath their feet.

I watched her take a slow breath.

She reached out and touched a stack of bank statements on the desk.

Mark turned to her, gesturing wildly with his glass.

I couldn’t hear his words through the thick glass, but his face was flushed.

He was shouting.

Juliette did not shout back.

She just watched him, her eyes cool and calculating.

She was measuring his desperation.

And she was realizing that his desperation was dangerous.

I took a step back into the shadows as Mark turned toward the window.

My foot snapped a dry twig.

The sound was sharp in the quiet night.

Inside, Juliette’s head snapped toward the window.

I held my breath, freezing against the brick wall.