“I know you left me,” she said.

“I know you’re only here because of the money from the Harper estate.”

I reached out and placed my hand over Caroline’s shoulder, feeling the tight knot of tension in her muscles.

“Thomas,” I said, leaning closer to the phone. “Get in your truck and drive back to Richmond.”

“Do not call this house again.”

“Oh, I’ll call whenever I want, Mother,” Thomas snapped, his tone turning vicious.

“You’ve poisoned her against me.”

“You’ve spent sixteen years filling her head with lies, turning her into a weapon against her own father.”

“That is parental alienation, pure and simple, and any judge in the Commonwealth will see right through it.”

“I am her biological father, and I have rights.”

“You have no rights here,” Rebecca whispered from the armchair, her voice cracked and weak.

“Shut up, Rebecca!” Thomas yelled through the speaker.

“You signed away your custody years ago when you handed her over to my mother.”

“But I never signed anything.”

“I have the Harper name, I have a clean record, and I have a four-bedroom house in the West End.”