Nora let out a cold, hollow laugh. “Douglas managed the forensic assignment. They used the unclaimed body of a woman from a county morgue, switched the dental files in the state database, and closed the case before anyone could ask questions.

I spent three weeks in a private clinic under a false name. By the time I could stand, Gavin had already been convicted. Jared made it clear: if I ever showed my face, Chloe would be the next one to have an ‘accident.'”

Nora reached under the floorboards beneath the table and drew out a small steel lockbox. She set it down and opened it — a row of old micro-cassette tapes and a high-capacity flash drive.

“I’ve spent five years waiting,” she said, her eyes burning with a quiet, lethal intensity. “Waiting for Chloe to be old enough. Waiting for Gavin’s appeals to run out, so they’d believe they’d won.

I have the recordings, Iris. I have Jared laying out the whole embezzlement scheme to Judge Douglas, and I have the original ledgers he stole from my office.”

Iris looked at the tapes, then at the woman who had given up her entire existence to keep her daughter safe from a corrupt machine.