The silence after Deborah's name was spoken felt like an explosion.
I stared at George, whose jaw tightened as the detective handed him the envelope. Inside was a series of transfers: bank payments, cryptic emails, and a message chain that showed Deborah, Phil’s long-time business associate and once my father’s close friend, had been funding the slander campaign against me. All of it—the false press, the rumors, even the staged threats—had been partially orchestrated with her knowledge.
"Why?" I whispered. "Why would she do this?"
George didn’t answer right away. He scanned the documents again, slowly, like he couldn’t believe them himself. "Because she stood to lose everything if Phil went down. And because she never thought you’d fight back."
I sat down slowly, the couch feeling like
