I read the sentence aloud, my voice cracking. “Josephine, the will they showed you is not the one I signed. The real one is in the steel box beneath this floor, along with proof of what Marcus and Vanessa have done.” Lucia gasped. Isabella stopped sorting her papers and stared up at me with huge, serious eyes. Rafael slowly lowered a lantern into the dark opening, and the ladder creaked beneath his boots.

Then gravel crunched on the road. A black sedan rolled up beside the cabin, and Marcus stepped out in a tailored coat, Vanessa right behind him. Daniel Whitmore followed with a briefcase. “Mother, what are you doing out here?” Marcus asked, smiling too widely. Then his eyes fell on the open trapdoor, and the smile vanished completely from his face.