Marcus closed his eyes for a long second. When he opened them, the anger was completely gone, replaced by the pale, exhausted look of a man whose web of lies had finally collapsed under its own weight.
"Dad... the New Haven project was a sure thing," Marcus said, his voice dropping into a desperate, rushing explanation as he took a step closer to the couch. "The developers guaranteed a twenty percent return by Q2. But the contractor ran off with the deposit, and the bank froze the credit line! I was just trying to cover the interest payments until the lawsuit cleared!"
"So you used Mom's insurance trust to cover your bad investment," Maya said coldly, standing beside the sofa with her arms folded across her chest. "And when the bank issued the default notice last week, you realized you needed a fall guy. So you engineered that Swiss transfer under my IP address so you could claim I stole the money and get me removed as co-executor!"
"I did it to save the house!" Marcus shouted at her, his composure completely shattering. "If I didn't move those funds to clear the primary lien, the bank would have served the eviction notice on Dad tomorrow morning! I was trying to buy time!"
"By framing your sister?!" Arthur's voice rose, unexpected and powerful, cutting through the room like a thunderclap.
The patriarch stood up from the sofa. He was no longer the quiet, frail old man in the cardigan. He stood tall, his chest heaving, his silver hair catching the light as he glared at his son.