"You look just like..." Daniel stammered, taking a shaky half-step forward.
I lowered my eyes, pulling the thick wool scarf up to cover the lower half of my face. "You have the wrong person."
My voice came out hushed, deliberately altered. I didn't back away. Instead, I crouched down and gathered the scattered white chrysanthemums from the gravel. The bitter scent hit my nose, pulling me back to a dozen birthdays, a dozen forced smiles when he brought them home.
I stood and held the bouquet out to him.
Daniel reached for the plastic wrapping. As his fingers brushed mine, I felt the cold metal of his watch. The heavy silver chronograph gleamed against his wrist.
I bought that watch. Last year, for his eighteenth birthday, I wired fifteen thousand dollars from the Hale Trust to a boutique in Geneva. Gerald handed it to him the next morning over breakfast, claiming he had tracked it down through a private dealer. Daniel had hugged him.
"She always stopped right here," Daniel murmured, his gaze dropping to the crushed petals on the ground.
He meant me. He meant the woman he thought was buried under the scarred stone.
"Your mother," I said, keeping the scarf high. "What did she do?"
Daniel adjusted his grip on the flowers. He looked at the blank spot on the granite, then back to me, his brow furrowing slightly.
"She was just a housewife," he answered.
The words hung in the air. Lightweight. Dismissive.
I stared at the boy standing in front of me. The boy whose trust fund held twenty million dollars of my family's money. The boy whose father’s failing empire survived only because I injected fifty million dollars in silent bailouts over three years.
Just a housewife.
"She stayed home," Daniel continued, his tone casual, almost bored. "My dad runs the company. He built everything we have."
A sharp pain flared behind my ribs, dull and heavy. Nineteen years of meticulously managing the Hale estate, of covering Gerald's disastrous investments, of ensuring Daniel never lacked a single luxury. All erased by a lie he swallowed without question.
"I see," I said softly.
I released the bouquet, letting him take the full weight of it.
"You should look closer at the things your father built," I told him, stepping back onto the grass. "Check the ledgers. Look at the accounts."
"What?" Daniel frowned, clutching the flowers tighter.
"Read the books," I instructed, my voice flat. "Look at the numbers backing your trust fund. See who really paid for that watch on your wrist."
I turned away and walked rapidly down the path toward the south gate.
"Hey!" Daniel called out, his footsteps crunching loudly on the gravel behind me. "Wait!"
I didn't stop. The black sedan idled by the curb, Theresa already pushing the back door open from the driver's seat.
"Who are you?" Daniel demanded, his voice rising, breaking the quiet of the cemetery.
I slid into the leather seat. Theresa hit the lock button the second my door shut.
I rolled the window down exactly two inches. Daniel jogged up to the curb, his face flushed, confusion twisting his features.
"Who are you?" he asked again, leaning toward the narrow opening.
I met his eyes through the tinted glass. "In three days, you will see me at your father's board meeting—"
The window glided up, sealing the car, cutting off the rest of the sentence.
