“Please stop…” The girl’s whisper was almost lost beneath the hiss of the garden hose. She sat trembling in her wheelchair in the middle of the wet driveway, soaked from her hair to her sneakers. Her light blue T-shirt clung to her shoulders.

By midnight, the Vance estate was guarded like a fortress. Sam Vance sat in the library, spreading out financial documents, bank transfers, and medical files across a large conference table.

"Look at this, David," Sam said, tapping a printout with his pen. "Sixteen months ago, Helen opened an offshore account in the Cayman Islands under the name 'Vance Trust Management.' Every month, three hundred thousand dollars was transferred from your company’s secondary development account into this fund."

David leaned over the table. "I never authorized those transfers."

"She forged your digital signature," Sam explained. "And look where the money went next. Half of it was funneled directly to a private clinic registered to Dr. Julian Thorne in Newark. The other half went to a high-risk hedge fund managed by Arthur Vance."

David’s jaw tightened. "Arthur? My cousin?"

"Your cousin," Sam confirmed. "Arthur has been heavily in debt to offshore gambling syndicates for three years. It looks like Helen and Arthur were working together. The plan was simple: keep Lily incapacitated, gradually alienate you from the family, and eventually poison you slowly enough that it looked like natural heart failure. With Lily unable to manage her inheritance, Helen and Arthur would take full control of Vance Logistics."

"They underestimated Lily," David said softly, looking toward the ceiling where his daughter was sleeping upstairs. "And they underestimated what I will do to protect her."

Just then, the library door opened, and Lily stepped inside.

She wasn't in her wheelchair. She was leaning heavily against the doorframe, her feet bare against the polished wood floor. She was weak, her balance uncertain, but she was standing under her own power.

"Daddy?" Lily whispered.

David was at her side in an instant, wrapping an arm around her waist to support her weight. "Lily, you should be resting. Dr. Sterling said your nerves need time to recover from the toxin."

"I heard voices," Lily said, looking at the papers on the table. "Is Helen coming back?"

"Never," David promised, looking into his daughter's frightened eyes. "I swear to you, sweetie, she will never set foot near you again."