I answered on the third ring, watching his face on my monitor. “Rachel,” he said, and his voice had lost every ounce of its command. “Rachel, get us out of here, this is insane.”

“You’re not trapped, Dad,” I said quietly. “The doors will open the instant a sheriff’s deputy arrives and verifies who each of you is. That’s for your protection and mine. I just wanted you to sit still long enough to hear something.” He went silent. On the screen, Vanessa clutched Brandon while Denise lowered herself onto my sofa, her confidence draining away. “You told me James would be ashamed of me,” I continued. “You used my dead husband to empty my savings three weeks after I buried him. Sixty thousand dollars, while I was still signing his death certificate.” My father searched for another excuse, but before he could finish, the distant wail of approaching sirens echoed through the speakers, and every face inside the villa turned toward the windows in panic.