"I was told a hundred and twenty thousand dollars."
I stared. "For what?"
"She said she was restructuring debts from her business."
Miriam leaned forward. "Do you have proof the loan was funded?"
"Not directly. I have emails in which she described the amount and asked me to confirm the expected deal timeline. My lawyer has copies."
I felt my pulse rise. Tessa had been struggling professionally, but I had no idea she'd taken on debt on that scale. She had never asked me for that amount, and I would not have agreed to pledge Dad's collection to cover it. I wondered whether the loan explained her insistence that the sale close quickly. Adrian's next answer made that possibility stronger.
"The lender wanted repayment before the end of the month," he said. "Tessa kept telling me the transfer had to happen while you were traveling."
"And you didn't ask why she wanted the owner out of town?"
Adrian looked at me. "I asked. She said you'd agreed but couldn't watch the furniture leave. I let myself believe it because I wanted to believe her."
That answer was awful, and for once I didn't try to make it easier for him. I let the silence stand. If he wanted me to understand his position, he could survive a few seconds inside the discomfort he'd helped create.
After a while, Miriam asked about the missing archive. Adrian said Tessa had separately arranged to send provenance documents to a private storage facility for scanning and authentication. He had seen photographs of the folders but didn't know where the originals had been taken. One message referenced a secure storage company outside the city, and he provided the name.
I leaned forward. "Do you understand what those papers are?"
"Yes."