“Let him go on thinking it,” Morales said, squaring the edges of her yellow notepad on the wooden desk.

“He’ll walk through that door expecting to lay down terms to a junior officer.”

Dalton picked up a heavy black fountain pen and laid it across the signature line on the last page.

“Once your signature goes on this page, Leah, there’s no settling it privately inside the family,” Dalton said, looking over his reading glasses.

“This goes straight into the official court record.”

A woman in a dark gray suit opened the conference room door, carrying a heavy steel notary embosser and an official registry log.