My stepmother called at 11:47 p.m. on the first night in the beach house I bought with my own money and told me she and my father were moving in the next day, that they were taking the master suite, that her daughter would get the best ocean-view room

It was a better question than do you want revenge, because revenge is easy to deny and much harder to define.

“I want the truth placed in front of the people she used reputation to impress,” I said. “I want my father’s name untangled from hers. I want the foundation not to celebrate itself for honoring stolen money. And I want no version of this where she gets to control the first public sentence after the file breaks.”

Judge Carter steepled her fingers. “That last part is the trickiest.”

“I know.”

“Because institutions dislike spectacle, even when spectacle is deserved.”

“I’m aware.”

She held my gaze for a long moment. “You’ve been aware of quite a lot for a long time, haven’t you?”

That was the closest anyone outside Adrien had come to acknowledging the years underneath the case, the practiced patience, the family history that made Vanessa’s confidence possible.

“Yes,” I said.