My stepmother called at 11:47 p.m. on the first night in the beach house I bought with my own money and told me she and my father were moving in the next day, that they were taking the master suite, that her daughter would get the best ocean-view room – Reading Times

“What do you need me to do?” he asked with a new sense of resolve. I told him I needed a sworn affidavit and that he would eventually need his own legal counsel.

Adrien and the forensic accountants worked quickly to prove that Gillian had been laundering Randall’s money into her own charitable accounts. I met with a powerful judge named Harriet who chaired the gala committee.

Harriet was a woman of immense authority who did not appreciate her organization being used to polish a thief’s reputation. She told me that if the evidence was authenticated, the award would be revoked immediately.

On the day of the gala, Gillian told me to iron her silk shawl and suggested I wear something simple. She told me the evening was not about me while she posed in a champagne colored gown and diamonds.

I wore a plain black dress and carried a structured bag that contained the manila envelope. The ballroom was filled with two hundred influential guests who were ready to celebrate Gillian’s fake generosity.