“Please, Eleanor.”

“Our names are on those state contracts.”

“If the state investigators look at those payrolls, we lose everything.”

“We will lose the house,” he said.

“We will lose our business licenses.”

“We will go to jail,” Victoria said, her voice cold.

“But we won’t go alone.”

“We will drag you down with us.”

“We will hire the best lawyers in the state to make sure you get charged with extortion.”

I looked at her green eyes.

They were the same color as Garrett’s, but there was no warmth in them.

Garrett’s eyes always crinkled at the corners when he smiled.

He had built this house for us to grow old in.

He had planted the maple trees along the driveway with his own hands.

“You never loved him,” I said softly.

Victoria let out a sharp, ugly laugh.

“He was our father,” she said.

“He was supposed to provide for us.”

“He didn’t have the right to leave everything to a woman he met in high school.”

“He wanted me to have the house,” I said.

“He wanted you to have nothing,” Victoria said.