Harrison Cole leaned back in his chair and studied his younger sister.
Khloe sat across from him with both arms wrapped around her stomach, as though she could protect her unborn daughter from the truth simply by holding her tightly enough.
Outside the glass walls of his Manhattan office, the city moved without mercy.
Traffic crawled through the streets.
Office lights burned in neighboring towers.
Millions of people continued with their lives while Khloe’s marriage quietly collapsed around her.
“You are not going back to that house to beg,” Harrison repeated.
Khloe wiped her face.
“I wasn’t planning to beg.”
“Good.”
“I need to know how much he took.”
Harrison’s expression hardened.
“That’s not what you need to worry about tonight.”
“It is if he’s trying to leave me with nothing.”
“He won’t.”
Khloe looked up.
Her brother did not raise his voice. He never needed to.
Harrison’s confidence did not come from arrogance.
It came from preparation.
He pressed a button on his desk phone.
“Maya, come in.”
Less than thirty seconds later, a woman in a dark gray suit entered the office carrying a laptop.
Maya Chen was Harrison’s chief forensic accountant.
She had spent fifteen years tracing hidden wealth through offshore corporations, false invoices, private trusts, and shell companies designed to make money disappear.