So did Clara, but only for a second.
“What was that?” Clara asked.
“Nothing.”
“Let me see.”
Nora turned the phone over.
A bank alert glowed across the screen.
TRANSFER COMPLETE.
Clara’s face changed.
The confidence vanished first. Then the anger.
“Who did you send it to?” Julian asked.
Nora looked at him for a long moment.
“To the person who actually needed it.”
Clara grabbed the edge of the table and stood so quickly her chair scraped the floor.
“You didn’t!”
Nora didn’t answer.
Julian’s phone suddenly began ringing in his pocket.
He pulled it out, glanced at the screen, and went completely pale.
Clara reached for him.
“What is it?”
Julian stared at Nora.
“What did you do?”
Nora’s expression remained calm, but her voice dropped low enough to freeze the room.
“I didn’t do anything to you, Julian.”
She leaned forward.
“I only stopped protecting you.”
Then Clara saw the second notification beneath the first one, and her mouth fell open.
Because the money hadn’t gone to a stranger.
It had gone to someone sitting at that table.
Someone who had been lying to all of them.
Ruth’s spoon slipped from her fingers.
