Page 232 of Ironwood Ranch Cowboys

Cody lets out one laugh. “You embezzled from us.”

Vivian’s composure shifts.

Duke straightens away from the bookshelf. “You manipulated ranch finances for years.”

“I stabilized operations.”

“You stole.”

Vivian’s eyes narrow. “Careful.”

“No,” Duke says. “You be careful.”

The room changes after that.

I feel it physically. Like standing outside right before lightning hits nearby.

Vivian looks between the brothers slowly, disbelief beginning to crack through her usual composure as she realizes this is the one thing she never expected from them: unity.

She built their obedience so carefully she forgot men eventually grow beyond cages.

“We know about the shell companies,” Cody says.

Silence.

“The investor coordination,” Silas adds.

“The acquisition pressure,” Duke finishes. “Tessa confirmed it all.”

Vivian goes still enough to become frightening.

Cody reaches over calmly and closes his laptop with one precise movement. “We hired Annie because the finances stopped making sense.”

Vivian’s eyes cut toward me again. “You brought an outsider into family business.”

I stand before I fully decide to. The movement draws everyone’s attention. “You were bleeding the ranch deliberately.”

Vivian’s mouth tightens faintly. “You have an extraordinarily inflated sense of your understanding.”

“No,” I reply softly. “I just pay attention.”

Vivian steps farther into the room. “Ironwood was becoming unstable long before any financial restructuring occurred.”

“Restructuring?” Duke echoes incredulously.

“You boys were making emotional decisions.”

Silas laughs once under his breath. “You mean independent decisions.”

Vivian ignores him. “Expansion costs were climbing. Public expectations were unsustainable. Staffing inefficiencies alone⁠—”

“You made the ranch look weaker than it was,” Cody cuts in. “So we’d keep depending on you.”

Vivian’s silence confirms more than denial ever could.

“You tried to frame me,” I say.

Vivian finally looks directly at me. “You inserted yourself into matters beyond your understanding.”