“He told me money doesn’t change hungry people,” I said. “It only lets them show their teeth faster.”
My mother’s hand went to her throat again. “How dare you.”
I laughed, not kindly.
“How dare I? Mom, for three years you’ve been living on anonymous grace and calling it your own discipline.”
Her face emptied.
So did my father’s.
I let the words land.
Then I started naming things.
“The credit card debt that vanished? Me.”
My mother actually took a step back.
“The Intrepid client expansion that saved your quarter, Dad? Me.”
My father gripped the chair so hard his knuckles blanched.
“The East Pier condo contracts that would have buried you in litigation, Jace? Me. The second bridge loan? Me. The last-minute investor who kept your office from getting sued into drywall dust? Also me.”
Jace stared.
He looked younger suddenly. Not innocent. Just stripped. Men like him are most recognizable when their reflected grandeur fails them.
“You’re lying,” he said, but there was no force in it.
Vivienne extended a single document from her folio without flourish. “Copies are available if litigation becomes your preferred coping strategy.”
Arthur Wexley coughed into his fist.
My father sank back into the chair.