Read on to discover Chapter Two...

Seraphina slumped back into her leather chair, her breath coming in shallow, panicked gasps.

"Elena... please..." Seraphina whimpered, the arrogant defiance melting off her face instantly. "Don't... please don't involve the IRS..."

"Why shouldn't I?" I asked, leaning forward in my wheelchair. "For eight years, I paid your rent. I paid your credit cards. I bought you three different cars because you kept wrecking them. And the whole time, you were sending thirty thousand dollars a month from 'VanceTech Consulting' to a shell company in Florida named SunState Holdings."

Richard frowned, looking between me and Seraphina. "What shell company? Seraphina, what is she talking about? You told us that money was going to Italian fashion suppliers!"

"She lied to you, Richard," Daniel Cho said, pulling up a series of bank statements on the large digital display screen mounted on the wall. "SunState Holdings isn't a fashion supplier. It's a real estate holding company owned by a man named Julian Vance."

The name echoed through the room like a dropped glass.

Evelyn gasped, clutching her chest. "Julian... no... no, that's impossible..."

"Who is Julian Vance?" I asked, looking directly into Evelyn’s terrified eyes. "Because according to my late mother's estate files, Julian Vance was Claire Vance’s younger brother. My uncle."

The silence in the room was absolute. You could hear the faint hum of the air conditioning unit overhead and the distant sound of a lawnmower outside on the grass.

Richard slowly turned his head toward his wife, his face contorting into a mixture of utter confusion and rising horror. "Evelyn... what is Julian Vance doing with Seraphina? Why was Seraphina sending Claire’s brother thirty thousand dollars a month?!"

Evelyn couldn't answer. She sat frozen, her lips trembling, her eyes wide with a terror far deeper than the fear of losing her money.

"Tell him, Evelyn," I whispered, my voice cutting through the thick silence like a scalpel. "Or should I let Chief Folarin explain how Julian Vance was the driver of the black sedan that struck my mother on the night of October 14th, thirty-two years ago?"

Seraphina buried her face in her hands, beginning to sob hysterically.

"Julian blackmailed me!" Seraphina wept, her voice shrill and pathetic. "Three years ago, I met him in Miami! He knew who I was! He showed me the bank documents... he said if I didn't funnel money from VanceTech to his Florida account every month, he would go to the police and tell them that Mom and Dad paid him to run Claire off the road!"