The silence stretched so long I thought he might not answer at all.
“Dad.” My voice came out sharper this time, fear sharpening it into something almost accusatory. “What divorce settlement? What are they talking about?”
My father’s hands, folded on the desk in front of him, had gone rigid. “Where did that message come from?”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“Annie.” His voice cracked, just slightly, in a way I’d never once heard in twenty-eight years of knowing him. “I need to know exactly who sent that. This matters more than you understand.”
“It’s the same number that told me about Elise,” I said, my patience thinning to nothing. “The same person Sofia warned me about, maybe, or someone else entirely. I have no idea, Dad, because everyone in my life has apparently decided that keeping me
