I stared at Oliver's father, my mind racing to process what he'd just confessed. The man who had orchestrated my family's ruin all those years ago was standing right in front of me, calmly sipping his whiskey as if he hadn't just dropped a nuclear bomb on my life.
"You...you were behind my family's bankruptcy?" The words felt foreign on my tongue, a bitter taste I couldn't seem to swallow.
He leaned back in his chair, eyeing me with an unsettling coolness. "Yes, my dear. I'm afraid I was."
I gripped the arms of the chair, my knuckles turning white from the strain. "Why? How could you do that to us?"
His lips curled into a sardonic smile. "It was necessary. A means to an end, you see." He paused, swirling the amber liquid in his glass. "The Sinclairs and the James family have been at
