The crescent scar gave the memory a name. Hazel had pulled me out of the fire.
Victoria remained on the floor, coughing into both hands. For ten years she had lived inside that lie. I had paid for it, defended it, and put Hazel beneath her.
David was already in the room, but I called his phone so there would be a record of the order.
“Dismantle the Harper family. Every stock, property, and hidden account. Find everyone who forged those records, from the orphanage director to the doctors, and send the evidence to the federal prosecutors.”
I looked at Victoria. “Leave her the clothes she is wearing and the name she disgraced. Let the public see exactly how poor she is.”
“Arthur, you will do no such thing!” my grandfather shouted. “This will be a scandal. You are throwing away a decade o
