“Twenty-two thousand dollars.”
“Ryland debt.”
“What else?”
Thomas became still.
She knew.
There was more.
“What else?”
Thomas exhaled.
“Father left you shares.”
“In?”
“Higgins Shipping.”
Lara stared.
Their father’s oldest business.
Profitable.
“How many?”
“Lara—”
“How many?”
“Eight percent.”
Her mouth went dry.
Higgins Shipping was worth perhaps half a million dollars.
Eight percent.
Forty thousand.
Maybe more.
Thomas had hidden it.
Elias watched Lara absorb.
She whispered:
“Dividends?”
Thomas said nothing.
“Six years.”
Still nothing.
“How much?”
“Business reinvested most.”
“How much?”
Thomas’s voice hardened.
“Approximately seventeen thousand.”
Lara nearly stopped breathing.
Combined.
Cash.
Debt.
Shares.
Dividends.
Her trust was worth more than eighty thousand dollars.
Maybe a hundred.
Thomas had told her she was expensive.
A burden.
He had forced her west while sitting on a fortune belonging to her.
Lara laughed.
Quiet.
Disbelieving.
Thomas frowned.
“What?”
“All those winters.”
“What?”
“You made me turn the heat down.”
Thomas looked annoyed.
“This is melodramatic.”
“No.”
Lara’s eyes filled.
“It is arithmetic.”
“You stole my life one coal bucket at a time.”
That silenced even him.
Thomas recovered.
“I administered the trust.”
“Father gave me authority.”
“Not ownership.”
“Your marriage would terminate—”
“I am not married.”
Thomas’s face tightened.
Exactly.
The scheme failed.
Lara continued:
“And I will petition a court to remove you as trustee.”
“You cannot.”
“I can.”
“No lawyer will—”
“I already wrote one.”
She hadn't.
But she would.
Thomas stared.
Elias almost smiled.
Thomas turned toward him.
“This is your doing.”
Elias shook his head.
“That's what men like you never understand.”
“What?”
“She did it herself.”
Thomas’s hatred became visible.
Not for Elias.
For Lara.
Because Elias was witnessing her disobedience.
Thomas lowered his voice.
“You think money changes what you are?”
Lara knew what came next.
She braced.
Thomas looked over her enormous body.
“Do you imagine eighty thousand dollars makes men forget what they see?”
Elias moved.
Lara caught his wrist.
“Don't.”
He stopped.
Thomas smiled.
There was the old pleasure.
He had found the wound.
Lara felt it.
Then something unexpected happened.
It hurt.
But it no longer controlled her.
She looked at her brother.
“Do you know what Elias saw first?”
Thomas scoffed.
“What?”
“Someone your friend was trying to humiliate.”
“He tore the contract.”
“He built a ramp because the porch was unsafe.”
“He gives me a chair that holds me without making it a joke.”
“He lets me eat without counting.”
Thomas's face shifted.
Lara continued.
“But none of that is why I’m staying.”
Elias looked toward her.
Thomas frowned.
“Then why?”
“Because I decided.”