Chapter 7: The Woman Who Knew Everything
Amara called Grace Ellison from the back of a cab heading south.
Grace answered on the first ring.
"I already know," Grace said.
"Someone came to my office an hour ago.
Said they were a client referral.
My assistant turned them away but I have it on camera."
"Are you somewhere safe?"
"I'm not at the office." A pause.
"I've done this before, Mrs.
Moretti.
When you work on cases like yours, you learn to keep a go-bag."
"Grace—"
"Everything is backed up.
Three separate locations, none of them connected to my office or my home.
Dante's lawyers can file whatever motion they want.
The data doesn't disappear because I do."
Amara exhaled.
"Who sent me that text?"
"I don't know.
But whoever it was knew about me, knew about you, and knew what Dante was doing fast enough to warn you within an hour of Victor Cass filing that motion." Grace paused.
"That's not someone on the outside of this situation."
The cab stopped at a red light.
Rain again.
Chicago in November.
"Selena," Amara said quietly.
"That would be my guess."
Amara stared out the window.
The woman in her chair.
The woman who had been feeding information to federal investigators for four months.
The woman who had just, apparently, sent a warning text to protect the wife of the man she was supposed to be with.
"Why would she help me?" Amara said.
"Maybe she isn't helping you," Grace said.
"Maybe she's helping herself.
If Dante goes after your financial disclosures and wins, it muddies the water for the federal case too.
Selena's cooperation only matters if the case holds together."
"So protecting me protects her."
"Possibly." A pause.
"Or she feels guilty.
People do, sometimes, even in situations like this."
Amara didn't answer that.
"What do I do about the counter-motion?" she asked.
"Nothing yet.
That's Philip's fight.
Your job right now is to stay out of Dante's reach, keep your daughter safe, and let the process work." Grace's voice was firm but not unkind.
"You did the hard part already.
You got out.
You got the documents.
You filed.
Everything else is paperwork and time."
"Dante doesn't lose paperwork fights."
"He's never fought one against someone who was already three weeks ahead of him." A brief pause.
"Mrs.
Moretti.
I have been doing this for fifteen years.
I have worked on cases involving men far more powerful than Dante Moretti.
And I will tell you what I tell every client at this point in the process." Her voice was steady.
"The men who believe their money makes them untouchable always make the same mistake.
They assume the person leaving them was never paying attention."
Amara thought of the airfield.
The rental car.
The gap in the curtains.
The photographs she had taken.
Then another.
"I was paying attention," Amara said.
"I know," Grace said.
"That's why we're going to win."
The cab pulled up outside Nadia's building.
Amara paid in cash, pulled her coat around her, and stepped out into the rain.
Nadia was waiting in the lobby.
"Selena Ward called me twenty minutes ago," Nadia said, before Amara could speak.
Amara stopped walking.
"She wants to meet," Nadia said.
"Just you.
No lawyers.
No federal agents.
She says she has something that belongs to you." Nadia's expression was careful.
May you like
"She says Dante doesn't know she has it.
And she says if he finds out she gave it to you, she's de@d."
