******
Scholar Chen was quiet for a moment, choosing his words carefully.
"Elara was brilliant," he finally said. "Not just intelligent genuinely brilliant. She understood economic systems the way some people understand art or music. She could look at a nation's financial reports and see patterns, predict outcomes, identify corruption that others missed. Within six months of marrying Frederick, she'd identified three major embezzlement schemes in Norvale's treasury and helped him restructure the entire financial system."
Emily sat up straighter. "My mother discovered corruption in the treasury?"
"Yes," Scholar Chen confirmed. "That's what first made Marcus nervous. He'd been stealing from Norvale for years small amounts, carefully hidden, nothing obvious. But Elara saw the patterns. She brought her findings to Frederick, and together they started investigating. That was....." He paused. "That was probably around 2003. A year after their marriage."
