tightened around the phone.
“Why are you at my parents’ house?”
He paused.
“Because yesterday was your twenty-fifth birthday.”
My skin prickled.
“So?”
“And under your grandmother’s instructions, that means I am finally legally permitted to speak directly to you about the Bennett Family Trust.”
I stopped breathing.
“What trust?”
Nobody answered.
Not Mom.
Not Dad.
Not Madison.
Mr. Hale finally said, “Claire… you were never told?”
The world seemed to tilt beneath me.
“Told what?”
Dad shouted, “Martin, stop.”
Mr. Hale’s voice hardened.
“Evelyn left her granddaughter an inheritance
