Sudden.
Convenient.
Now, standing beside his coffin, Vivian lifted her chin and said dramatically, “Daniel would be ashamed of what you’re doing.”
Noah looked at her without blinking.
“Dad said you would say that.”
The room shifted.
You could feel it.
The balance of power had changed, even if nobody fully understood how yet.
I gently took the phone from Noah—not to stop him, but because he shouldn’t have to carry this alone anymore.
“This funeral is over,” Grant snapped. “Elena, don’t make this uglier than it already is.”
I turned slowly toward him.
“Uglier than stealing from your dead brother?”
Grant’s face exploded red with fury.
There it was.
The first crack.
Vivian hissed, “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I looked directly at her.
“I’m a forensic accountant, Vivian.”
The silence afterward was deafening.
Rain tapped softly against stained glass.
Someone near the back coughed nervously.
Most of Daniel’s family knew I worked in finance. None of them cared enough to ask what I actually did.
Vivian preferred her own version of me.
The poor girl Daniel rescued.
