“I heard the phone ring earlier,” she said.

“It was nothing to worry about, sweetheart,” I said, trying to close the laptop screen.

“Don’t do that,” she said, stepping into the room.

She walked over to the desk and looked down at the screen before I could lower it.

She read the court dockets with incredible speed.

She did not look shocked.

Her face remained calm, almost detached.

“So he is broke,” she said.

“Caroline,” I began, rising from my chair.

“It makes sense,” she said, tapping her pencil against her notebook.

She pulled up a wooden folding chair and sat down beside me.

“His physical indicators were all wrong for a successful businessman,” she said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“His watch is a fake,” she said. “The second hand was stuttering. A real Rolex has a smooth sweep.”

She flipped her notebook open to a clean page.

“And his suit jacket had a small fray on the left cuff that had been colored in with a black marker,” she continued.

I stared at her.

I had been so focused on his words that I had missed those tiny details.