"She's a drug addict!"
My palm hits the table.
The sound cracks through the room and the silence that follows is immediate and complete, and nobody breathes through it.
"Enough."
One word. It lands, and the room obeys.
Paula's mouth is open. Her finger still raised. She stays frozen in the posture of her accusation for three full seconds.
Then Sienna moves.
She turns her head, slow and deliberate, away from Paula and me, toward the end of the table. Toward the associate who has been sitting there, motionless, stylus hovering over her tablet.
Sienna smiles at her. Small and warm, the corners of her eyes softening in a way that doesn’t denounce she is a woman who just sat through that assault without blinking.
"I'm sorry," she says. "I didn't get your name."
That’s because I didn’t say it when I introduced her. I didn't even know it myself.
The associate blinks. Glances at me, then back at Sienna. "Kate."
"Kate." Sienna nods. "Can I ask you for a piece of paper and a pen?"
Kate looks at me again. Then stands, tears a sheet from her legal pad, and walks it down the table with a pen. Sienna takes both. "Thank you."
She writes. Quick, clean strokes, the pen moving without hesitation across the page.
Paula stares. I stare. Kate, still standing beside Sienna's chair, stares.
Sienna signs her name at the bottom, sets the pen down, and slides the page across the table toward me.
I pick it up.
I, Sienna Cross, relinquish all claims to the estate of Conrad Cross, including financial holdings, investments, and personal property. The sole exception is the residential property located at Hidden Hills, California, designated Cross Manor, which I claim as my legal inheritance. This document represents my position, signed voluntarily and without coercion.
Her signature beneath it. Dated today.
I read it once. The legal implications arrive before anything else, and they're not small.
I set the paper down. I look up.
She's already watching me. Brown eyes, steady, unreadable. She isn't waiting for my approval.
"You have it all there, in writing and signed." Her voice is calm. Certain. "I don't want a single dime from Conrad Cross. Except the house in Hidden Hills."
She stands and turns toward Kate.
"Thank you, Kate."
Kate nods, mute.
Sienna looks at me. "Mr. Kade. Get in touch when everything is final."
She walks to the door.
Paula starts screaming.
