---- Chapter 13 Harper Griffin POV: "So, 'Mr. Olson, CEO of North Star Developments," | said, arching an eyebrow at Keaton across the table of a quiet, secluded restaurant later that week. "Anything else you've been hiding? Secret agent? Deposed prince?" He had the grace to look slightly abashed, stirring his black coffee. "My apologies," he said, a faint smile playing on his lips. "It seemed... professionally prudent to maintain a level of discretion, given the circumstances." "Given that my ex-husband is your arch-nemesis, you mean," | finished for him. "Something like that," he admitted. "But to be clear, Harper, my role as your lawyer is my only priority right now. Consider me Keaton Olson, Esquire. Your exclusive counsel." The playful mood evaporated as | got down to business. "What's the status of the case against him? For what he did to my parents." My voice was tight. It was the one wound that still felt raw, open, and bleeding. Keaton' s smile faded. He shook his head, his expression grim. "It's not good. Adler covered his tracks too well. The staged plane crash, the falsified death certificates... it's all buried ---- under layers of untraceable shell corporations and paid-off officials. We have my testimony, and your parents'-" he hesitated, "-but your father is still not a credible witness, and your mother's testimony alone is not enough. We need something more. Something concrete." He slid a thick file across the table. It was the Griffin Firm's latest financial report. "I think the answer might be in here." | flipped through the pages. It didn't take an expert to see the disaster. "This is insane," | murmured, my finger tracing a line graph that plummeted downwards. "The design department, our core asset, has only launched one new product line in five years. And it was a spectacular failure." | remembered the headlines. The new 'innovative' building material had been rushed to market, leading to a catastrophic structural failure in a major construction project with a company called Jiang Corp. The resulting lawsuit had nearly bankrupted the firm, cost us our reputation, and led to a massive stock devaluation. "The numbers don't add up," | said, flipping to the profit and loss statement. "Despite the lawsuit, the stock crash, and the loss of major clients, the company is still reporting a profit. A small one, but still. It's impossible. This is financial fraud on a massive scale." A wave of grief and regret washed over me. | had let this happen. My selfishness, my blind love for Adler, had allowed him to systematically gut my parents' life's work. He was ---- using it as his personal piggy bank, a vampire draining it of its lifeblood before he discarded the corpse. "He's going to run it into the ground and walk away, just like he did with me," | said, my voice thick with anger. "This fraud... is it enough?" | asked, looking up at Keaton, a desperate hope in my eyes. "Is it the concrete evidence we need?" He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "It's a start. But Adler is a master of public relations. He'll spin this. He'll blame the market, the previous management, anything. We need to find the smoking gun. We need to prove he intentionally sabotaged the Jiang Corp project." The path forward seemed like an impenetrable wall. "The answer has to be in the records for that lawsuit," | said, thinking aloud. "We need to find out what really happened with that faulty material." | looked at Keaton. "Can you get me the sealed court documents from the Jiang Corp case?" Before he could answer, a loud crash echoed from the other side of the restaurant, followed by a child's panicked cry. | instinctively looked over, my heart giving a painful lurch. A small boy, no older than six, was lying on the floor next to an overturned chair. His face was chalky white, his small chest barely moving. It was Leo. Juliana Pitts' son. The boy she had coached to call me wicked, the boy | had last seen looking at me with a mixture of fear and contempt. ---- And he wasn't breathing.