The phone remained pressed to my ear, but the voice of Gloria—my mother-in-law, my parasite-in-law—faded into white noise. I stared past the glass wall of the corporate skyscraper at the Chicago skyline, glittering like an endless circuit board under a frozen night sky.

"I thought you'd want to review this before the board meeting," Richard said, adjusting his spectacles. "It relates to the Carter family trust—specifically, the contingency clauses established by your late grandfather."

I raised an eyebrow, leaning back in my leather chair. "My grandfather's trust was ironclad. Everything was partitioned directly to me upon incorporation."

"Mostly, yes," Richard agreed, tapping a finger on a marked page. "However, there was an obscure secondary rider attached to the primary residential estate in Highland Park. A legacy clause. It dictates that if a marriage dissolution occurs due to documented financial betrayal or corporate espionage by a spouse, any lingering trust-held assets assigned to that spouse's lineage automatically trigger a forfeiture penalty."

I narrowed my eyes. "Meaning?"

"Meaning Gloria Carter—your former mother-in-law—has been drawing a monthly lifestyle stipend of twelve thousand dollars from a subsidiary trust account for the last six years," Richard explained smoothly. "A stipend that Sebastian personally negotiated under the guise of 'family philanthropic support.' Because the divorce was ruled as default fraud, the secondary trust provisions instantly activate. The stipend is frozen retroactively. And worse..."

Richard paused, letting a grim smile touch his lips.

"Because Gloria used her suburban Indiana home as collateral for a private bridge loan to help fund Sebastian's wedding and legal retainers, and because that loan was backed by her expected inheritance from our subsidiary... the bank is about to foreclose on her house."