Daniel drove them to Victor’s estate before Martin could stop him.

Victor was waiting in his study, one hand resting on a silver-headed cane.

“You brought her into my house?”

Eleanor remained in the doorway.

“It was my house before you forced me out.”

Victor smiled at Daniel.

“You see?

She has started already.”

Daniel dropped the access form on the desk.

“Why is my signature on this?”

“You authorize hundreds of documents.”

“I didn’t authorize this one.”

Victor picked it up without looking.

“Then one of your employees made an error.”

“The bank video shows me entering.”

“You probably did.”

“I was in Toronto last Tuesday.”

Victor’s smile faded.

Noah placed his phone on the desk.

“I have pictures from Dad’s conference.”

Victor looked at him.

“Children should stay out of adult matters.”

“No,” Noah said.

“Children are the ones who live with the lies adults tell.”

Eleanor pressed her lips together as tears filled her eyes.

Victor turned back to Daniel.

“She took money and left.

Martin Hale helped prepare the agreement.”

“Martin says you switched the pages.”

“Martin is a frightened old man trying to protect himself.”

Daniel leaned across the desk.

“Did you return her letters?”

“I protected you from confusion.”

“You told me she didn’t want me.”

“She didn’t fight hard enough.”

Eleanor stepped forward.

“You changed his school.

You moved without telling me.

You had guards remove me from the gate.”

“And you accepted my offer.”

“I accepted nothing.”

Victor opened a drawer and produced a bank receipt.

“One hundred thousand dollars deposited into an account bearing your name.”

Daniel read the receipt.

His shoulders dropped.

“Mom, this account is yours.”

Eleanor shook her head.

“I’ve never seen it.”

“Of course she has,” Victor said.

“Now she has found you wealthy and suddenly remembers being a mother.”

Daniel’s voice cracked.

“Tell me there’s an explanation.”

Eleanor gripped the back of a chair.

“If you think I sold you, say it to my face.”

“I don’t know what to think.”

Her hand slipped from the chair.

Noah caught her arm.

“Grandma, sit down.”

“Don’t call her that,” Victor snapped.

Noah faced him.

“She helped me pick up oranges.

You couldn’t even pick up the phone and tell the truth.”

Victor raised his cane and pointed it toward the door.

“Get that boy out.”

Daniel stepped between them.

“Never point anything at my son again.”

Martin entered carrying the folder.

“I traced the account.”

Victor’s face tightened.

“You are trespassing.”

“The deposit went into an account opened in Eleanor’s name,” Martin said.

“But the withdrawal was signed by Victor three days later.”

Daniel looked up.

“Where did the money go?”

Martin laid down three transfer slips.

“Into Mercer Industrial Ventures.”

“That became Mercer Holdings,” Daniel said.

Victor struck the desk with his cane.

“I multiplied that money into a fortune!”

“You took it from her,” Noah said.

“I saved this family.”

Eleanor’s voice became quiet.

“You didn’t save a family.

You purchased my son’s grief and used it as capital.”

Victor reached for the documents, but Daniel pulled them away.

“You wanted proof?” Victor said.

“Look at the final transfer.”

Daniel turned over the last slip.

The beneficiary line did not carry Victor’s name.

It carried Daniel’s.

Victor leaned back.

“If I go down for this, son, your entire fortune goes with me.”