DR. SAMUEL VALE.

Nate looked at her.

“Vale?”

Evelyn nodded.

“Simon had a brother.”

Olivia stumbled backward.

“No.”

“He’s a forensic pathologist.”

“No.”

“He reviewed the toxicology report.”

Olivia shook her head violently.

“You don’t know what you’re doing.”

“He does.”

“You can’t send him that.”

“I already did.”

The message changed.

Delivered.

Olivia stared at the screen.

Then she did something nobody expected.

She laughed.

It was soft at first.

Almost disbelieving.

Then louder.

Nate stared at her.

“What’s funny?”

Olivia looked at Evelyn.

“You think you found the truth?”

Evelyn said nothing.

Olivia wiped tears from beneath her eyes.

“You found exactly what someone wanted you to find.”

The ballroom went quiet again.

Evelyn’s stomach tightened.

“What does that mean?”

Olivia looked toward Margaret.

And smiled.

Not happily.

Knowingly.

“Ask your mother.”

Every head turned.

Margaret Mercer had not moved.

She sat at Table Seven with both hands folded in her lap.

Nate looked at her.

“Mom?”

Margaret’s face was unreadable.

Evelyn felt cold.

“Mom?”

Olivia laughed again.

“Go ahead, Margaret.”

Margaret slowly stood.

“Don’t.”

Olivia tilted her head.

“Why not?”

“Because you’ve done enough.”

Olivia’s expression changed.

“Me?”

Margaret looked at Evelyn.

And Evelyn suddenly understood something terrifying.

Her mother wasn’t shocked by the documents.

She wasn’t confused.

She wasn’t even looking at the screen.

She already knew what was on it.

“Mom,” Evelyn whispered.

Margaret closed her eyes.

Nate stared at her.

“You knew?”

Margaret opened her eyes.

“Yes.”

One word.

That was all it took.

Evelyn felt as though the floor had shifted.

“How?”

Margaret looked at Olivia.

“Because I knew Simon.”

Olivia’s smile disappeared.

Nate whispered, “What?”

Margaret stepped away from the table.

“I met Simon Vale eight years ago.”

Evelyn shook her head.

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“It will.”

Margaret walked slowly toward the front.

“Your father left more than money when he died.”

Nate frowned.

Their father, Charles Mercer, had died eleven years earlier.

Heart attack.

At least that was what they had always been told.

“He left records,” Margaret continued. “Business records. Accounts. Companies I had never heard of.”

Nate stared.

“What companies?”

Margaret looked at the screen.

“Companies connected to Simon Vale.”

Evelyn’s heartbeat quickened.

Olivia whispered, “Don’t do this.”

Margaret ignored her.

“Charles had been moving money for years.”

“How much?” Evelyn asked.

Margaret hesitated.

“Almost forty million dollars.”

The ballroom erupted again.

Nate looked stunned.

“Our father?”

“Yes.”

“Where?”

“Shell companies. Offshore accounts. Real estate.”

Margaret’s voice trembled.

“Simon discovered it.”

Evelyn struggled to breathe.

“What does that have to do with Olivia?”

Margaret looked at her.

“Everything.”

Olivia stepped forward.

“Margaret.”

“No.”

Margaret’s voice hardened.

“You’ve lied long enough.”

Olivia’s eyes filled with rage.

“So have you.”