Chapter 10 - THE LAWYER WHO KNEW EVERY LOCK
Leah Morgan had served the Russo family for fourteen years.
She drafted Maximilian’s legitimate acquisitions, defended employees Dominic discarded, and quietly guided Julian toward federal cooperation. If she betrayed them, every privileged conversation had been exposed from the beginning.
Maximilian confronted her in the estate library. Clara and Mrs. Gable listened from the adjoining archive.
Leah did not deny knowing the cipher.
She removed her attorney pin and placed it on the desk before answering, a small acknowledgment that professional authority had become part of the evidence.
“My father defended your grandfather,” she said. “I grew up believing service to the Russo family was public duty. By the time I understood it was captivity with excellent tailoring, my name was on too many documents.”
“That sounds like an excuse,” Clara said.
“It became one for years.” Leah met her gaze. “It is not one tonight.”
“I created it with Julian,” she said. “That does not mean I wrote those messages.”
“Your certificate erased clinic footage,” Maximilian replied. “The townhouse location leaked through someone in our circle. Adrian’s phone points to Dominic in your code.”
Leah opened her briefcase slowly. Inside was a federal cooperation agreement bearing Julian’s real signature, dated three days after the crash.
“I found him at Saint Bartholomew,” she said. “I moved him before Dominic arrived.”
Clara entered despite instructions to remain hidden. “You knew he lived?”
Leah’s face crumpled. “For forty-eight hours.”
Julian refused to contact Clara until federal agents secured her. Before that could happen, someone abducted him from the clinic using Leah’s forged authorization. She concealed the failed extraction because disclosure would reveal the task force’s compromised personnel.
“You let Clara believe he was dead,” Maximilian said.
“I believed telling her would get her killed.”
Another decision made over Clara’s life without her consent.
Leah admitted leaking the townhouse address—to a deputy federal marshal assigned to protect them. She believed the marshal was loyal. He disappeared after the attack.
“Adrian’s messages are bait,” Leah said. “Dominic wants you to discard the only security chief who can identify his network.”
She gave Maximilian a list of compromised agents Julian suspected. At the top was the task-force commander overseeing Adrian’s arrest.
They reached the federal building too late. Adrian had been transferred under an emergency order no judge issued.
His transport van was found empty beneath an overpass.
On the seat lay Maximilian’s matching silver signet ring.
He looked down at his right hand.
May you like
His ring was gone.
Someone had removed it from his finger inside his own guarded library—and he had never felt them do it.
