The first sound was not my sister’s gasp.

It was my brother’s phone hitting the polished concrete floor.

Blake had gone so pale he looked powdered.

The screen above us kept flashing the same words in violent red: HARBOR PACIFIC BANK SHARES HALTED.

FEDERAL AGENTS ENTER HEADQUARTERS. TRADING SUSPENDED PENDING INVESTIGATION.

Rachel was still holding her own phone in one frozen hand.

On the screen was the email Naomi had just delivered in paper form too: VALDDEREE TALENT AGREEMENT TERMINATED FOR CAUSE.

My father looked from the monitors to me with the slow disbelief of a man realizing he had walked into a room he did not understand.

“Elise,” he said, and for once my name contained no impatience, only confusion.