The question hung in the study while the pond outside went on reflecting the sky with its indifferent perfection. Simon did not rush to fill the silence, which was one of the things I had always valued about him. He understood that some questions required the asking to settle before the answer could land cleanly.

“Your options,” he said at last, “are significant. The recording Brooke made is inadmissible as evidence of anything except her own behavior. The edited version she posted contains you speaking words you actually said, stripped of the context that explains why you said them.

That context is documented. The original, unedited footage is recoverable.”

“From where?”

“From her phone’s cloud backup, which she connected to the family’s shared cellular account, which your grandmother’s estate has been paying for and which I have administrative access to.”