Chapter 6 - The Lawyer Who Knew Too Much)
Andrew Reeve denied everything.
His firm released a statement saying the access was unauthorized and that no attorney had knowingly entered Ferrante Development's systems.
Rachel believed part of that statement.
Not the useful part.
She believed someone at the firm had accessed the records.
Whether Andrew personally ordered it remained uncertain.
Ferrante's cybersecurity team traced the login to a laptop assigned to a junior associate named Kevin Marsh.
Kevin was twenty-eight.
He had worked at Reeve, Barton and Cole for thirteen months.
By evening, he had disappeared from the firm's employee directory.
"They fired him?" Sienna asked.
Rachel shook her head.
"His employment ended this morning. The firm says he resigned."
"Convenient."
"Very."
Kevin stopped answering calls.
His apartment was empty except for furniture.
His car was gone.
Rachel advised Sienna not to make assumptions.
But she immediately hired an investigator.
Meanwhile, the custody case continued.
Gavin's first supervised visit with Mila happened at a family services center.
Sienna waited in another room with a social worker.
She hated every minute.
When Mila came out forty-five minutes later, she was not crying.
That somehow worried Sienna more.
"How was it?"
"Fine."
"What did you do?"
"Colored."
"Did Daddy say anything that made you uncomfortable?"
Mila looked at the social worker.
Then at Sienna.
"He said Grandpa is making you hate him."
Sienna closed her eyes briefly.
The social worker wrote something down.
Mila continued.
"He said families forgive mistakes."
"They sometimes do."
"He said I should tell the judge the phone recording was an accident."
Sienna's chest tightened.
The social worker immediately said, "That part of the visit will be included in my report."
"Did you answer him?" Sienna asked.
Mila nodded.
"I said it was an accident that he got caught."
Sienna stared.
The social worker covered a smile.
"Mila."
"What?"
Sienna pulled her into a hug.
"Nothing."
At home, Leo was gaining weight.
He slept in short bursts.
Sienna learned to answer legal emails with one hand while holding a bottle in the other.
She also returned, slowly, to Ferrante Development.
Not physically at first.
From her father's dining room table.
She had spent years telling herself she did not care about the family company.
Gavin encouraged that distance.
"Your father will never see you as an equal," he used to say.
"Why waste your life proving something to him?"
So Sienna stepped away.
She consulted occasionally.
Attended annual meetings.
Collected distributions.
Let Gavin represent their household at social events.
Now she reviewed the financial audit herself.
The work felt familiar.
Before marriage, she had studied finance and urban development.
She had once planned to run part of the company.
Nico never stopped keeping an office for her.
On the seventh day of the audit, Sienna found something the accountants had missed.
A series of consulting payments made over eighteen months.
Small enough individually not to attract attention.
Together they totaled 1.6 million dollars.
The recipient was listed as MRJ Advisory.
Sienna stared at the initials.
M R J.
Marjorie Ruth James Cole.
She called Rachel.
Twenty minutes later, Rachel and Nico were looking at the documents.
"Could be coincidence," Rachel said.
Sienna shook her head.
"Look at the approval chain."
The payments had been authorized using Gavin's consulting credentials.
Gavin had served for two years as an external development adviser on one Ferrante project.
His role gave him limited access to vendor approvals.
"He paid his mother," Nico said.
"Or someone using a company connected to her."
Rachel searched public records.
MRJ Advisory had been dissolved eight months earlier.
Its registered mailing address was a private mailbox.
But the original incorporation agent was Andrew Reeve.
Gavin's attorney.
The circle tightened.
That evening, the investigator found Kevin Marsh.
He was staying at a roadside motel ninety miles away.
Kevin agreed to speak only if Rachel promised the meeting would be confidential unless he authorized disclosure.
They met the next morning in a private office.
Sienna attended by video.
Kevin looked terrified.
"I didn't hack Ferrante."
Rachel said, "Then why did your assigned laptop access the system?"
"Because Andrew gave it to Gavin."
Sienna sat straighter.
"When?"
"The night before the login."
"Why?"
Kevin rubbed both hands over his face.
"Andrew told me the laptop needed a software update. The next morning, it was back on my desk. Then security called. Andrew told me to resign."
"Did he pay you?"
"No."
"Threaten you?"
Kevin looked away.
"He said if I made trouble, he'd report that I had accessed confidential client files."
"Had you?"
"Once."
Rachel's tone remained neutral.
"What files?"
"Gavin Cole's."
Sienna stopped breathing.
Kevin continued.
"I was working late. His file was open on Andrew's desk."
"What did you see?"
"A settlement agreement."
"With whom?"
"North Harbor."
Rachel leaned forward.
"What settlement?"
Kevin swallowed.
"An older case."
"How old?"
"About nine years."
Sienna stared at the screen.
Nine years ago.
Before she married Gavin.
Kevin continued.
"The plaintiff was a woman named Evelyn Cole."
Sienna's mind went blank.
"Evelyn?"
Kevin nodded.
"She accused North Harbor of holding her without legal authority after her husband and son claimed she was mentally unstable."
Nobody spoke.
Sienna heard Leo breathing in the bassinet.
Then Rachel asked, "What was the husband's name?"
Kevin looked directly into the camera.
"Thomas Cole."
Marjorie's late husband.
Gavin's father.
"And the son?" Rachel asked.
Kevin's face tightened.
"Gavin."
Sienna felt the room tilt.
Gavin had not invented the plan to institutionalize his wife.
He had seen it before.
Inside his own family.
"Who was Evelyn Cole?" Sienna asked.
May you like
Kevin answered quietly.
"Gavin's aunt."
