My daughter cut into her gender reveal cake and immediately started crying.

Spencer reached the top landing of the stairs holding a leather duffel bag.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the light on inside his study and the open safe door visible behind us.

He had changed out of his party sweater into a dark jacket and jeans. His hair was messy, his jaw unshaven, and his eyes bloodshot with wild, erratic fury.

"What are you doing in my study, Chloe?" Spencer demanded, his voice thick and aggressive. "Get out of my room!"

"You killed them," Chloe said. She was holding the blue ledger against her chest.

Spencer froze. His eyes darted down to the blue leather book in her hands, and the arrogant rage on his face instantly vanished, replaced by a twitching, paranoid fear.

"Give me that book, Chloe," Spencer said, taking a slow, threatening step forward into the narrow hallway.

"Stay back, Spencer!" I shouted, stepping in front of my daughter. "Ray is parked right outside, and the police are on their way!"

"Shut up, Linda!" Spencer roared, pointing a finger at me. "This is between me and my wife! Give me the book, Chloe! You don't understand what you're looking at!"

"I understand everything, Spencer," Chloe said, her voice rising in a clear, sharp tone that echoed through the empty hallway. "Dr. Aris. The progesterone injections. The early gender screens. You murdered two of my daughters because they didn't have a penis to unlock your grandfather's trust fund!"

"They weren't children!" Spencer screamed, his face contorting into a mask of hideous, naked greed. "They were embryos! They were useless girls who would have cost me twelve million dollars! You were thirty-four years old, Chloe! You were running out of time, and I wasn't going to let my uncle take everything my family built!"

"You monster," I spat. "You absolute, sickening monster."

"You think you're so smart, Linda?" Spencer sneered, turning his venom on me. "You think you're going to take that book to the police? Dr. Aris left the country three weeks ago! He’s living in Dubai! That ledger is nothing but handwritten notes—it won't stand up in a criminal court without a witness!"

He took two fast steps toward us, reaching out his long arms to snatch the ledger from Chloe's grip.

"Give it to me!" he bellowed.

Chloe didn't run. She didn't scream.

She reached into her coat pocket, pulled out her phone, and pressed the red button on the screen.

A clear, loud beep echoed from the small speaker:

RECORDING SAVED TO SECURE CLOUD DRIVE.

"Thank you, Spencer," Chloe said calmly, staring him straight in the eye. "You just confessed to two counts of conspiracy to commit murder and felony medical fraud on a live audio recording delivered directly to Detective Miller’s email inbox."

Spencer stared at her phone. His mouth opened, but no sound came out.

Headlights flashed through the front window of the hallway as three police cruisers pulled up onto the lawn outside, their red and blue lights stroking the walls of the dark house in a rhythmic, blinding pattern.

The sound of heavy boots pounding up the front porch steps echoed from below.

"POLICE! OPEN THE DOOR!"

Spencer backed away toward the railing of the staircase, looking frantically between the window, the hallway, and the blue ledger in my daughter's hands.

"Chloe... please," Spencer whimpered, his voice dropping into a pathetic, sniveling whine as he fell to his knees on the carpet. "Don't do this to me. I did it for us. I did it so our son would be rich. We can still be a family, Chlo... please..."