Tyler looked trapped again.
I kept going.
“The ninety-four thousand
dollars.”
His jaw tightened.
“The home-equity loan.”
He closed his eyes.
“My forged signature.”
Vanessa recoiled.
“You forged her signature?”
Tyler rubbed his forehead.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.”
There it was.
The sentence beneath every terrible decision.
Not that it shouldn’t have happened.
Only that it shouldn’t have happened this way.
I unlocked my phone.
“My sister already has copies of everything.”
Tyler looked up sharply.
“I sent her every document while you were still taxiing the plane.”
“Claire, listen—”
“No.”
My voice remained steady.
That surprised even me.
“You have spent years deciding what everyone else was allowed to know. That ends today.”
His expression hardened.
A flicker of the Tyler I knew appeared.
“Be careful.”
Vanessa turned toward him.
“Did you just threaten her?”
“No.”
“You said be careful.”
“I meant before she does something that affects Mason.”
