Victoria took two quick steps toward the window.

She parted the heavy lace curtains with her fingers.

Her face went pale under her thick foundation.

“Charles!” she called out, her voice rising an octave.

Charles came through the door a second later.

His linen suit was wrinkled at the elbows, and he had a dark smudge of grease on his cuff.

“What is it?” Charles asked, his voice shaking.

“There is a cruiser coming up the main drive,” Victoria said.

She turned on me, her eyes wide and wild.

“You called them,” she said, pointing a finger at my chest.

“I didn’t call anyone,” I said.

“She is lying,” Victoria said to Charles.

“She has the lawyer on speed dial.”

Charles wiped his forehead with a blue silk handkerchief.

“We need to finish this now, Eleanor,” he said.

He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a leather checkbook.

He laid it on the cherry wood desk.

“We will give you five hundred thousand dollars,” Charles said.

I looked at the black leather of the checkbook.

The gold lettering on the corner was worn.