Chapter 6: Sunday
Daniel spent Sunday on the phone.
Marcus spent Sunday reviewing the drive.
Mara spent Sunday waiting — which was the hardest thing she had done in three years, harder than building the case, harder than staying away, harder than watching from a distance while Julian gave interviews and accepted awards and smiled at cameras with the easy confidence of a man who believed he had already won.
She sat in the hotel suite and read through the documents one more time.
Not because she needed to.
Because she needed her hands to be doing something.
At two in the afternoon, Marcus called.
"The recording is clean," he said.
"No gaps, no edits.
Chain of custody is solid — Garrett kept records of everything.
Date stamps, source logs, the works." A pause.
"Mara, this is the kind of evidence prosecutors spend careers hoping to find."
"Can you file today?"
"I already did." His voice was calm.
"The warrant application went to the judge an hour ago.
We should have a response by morning."
She let out a slow breath.
"And the civil filing?"
"Goes in simultaneously.
The moment the warrant is executed, both actions are public record." He paused again.
"There's no version of tomorrow where Julian Voss walks into his office and has a normal day."
Mara set down the page she was holding.
"He's going to come after me," she said.
"Before tomorrow.
Tonight, maybe."
"Harlow?"
"Garrett said Julian called him after the gala."
"I know.
I've already spoken to someone about Harlow." Marcus's tone didn't shift.
"He won't be available to Julian by this evening."
Mara didn't ask how.
She had learned, over three years, that Marcus Chen operated in a world where certain things were handled without explanation and were better left that way.
"Beatrice called me," Mara said.
Silence on the line.
"When?"
"An hour ago.
She used a number I didn't know she had." Mara stood and walked to the window.
"She said she wanted to talk.
Not to negotiate.
She was very specific about that.
She said she just wanted to talk."
"What did you say?"
"I said I'd think about it."
"Are you going to?"
Mara looked out at the city.
The afternoon light was flat and gray, the kind of light that made everything look like it was waiting for something.
"She made the call that started all of this," Mara said.
"She told Julian I was vulnerable.
She gave him the opening." A pause.
"But she also sat at that table this morning and put her hand on those documents and told him no."
"That's not absolution."
"No," Mara agreed.
"It's not." She turned away from the window.
"But it might be useful."
"Mara—"
"I'm not protecting her, Marcus.
I'm being practical." She sat back down at the table.
"If Beatrice testifies voluntarily about the call she made three years ago, it corroborates everything.
It closes the last gap in the civil case." She picked up her pen.
"Set up a meeting.
Tonight, if she's willing.
Somewhere neutral."
Marcus was quiet for a moment.
"You're sure?"
"I'm sure that I didn't spend three years on this to leave a gap that Julian's lawyers can drive through." She wrote a single word on the notepad in front of her.
*Beatrice.* "Set it up."
She ended the call.
The suite was quiet again.
Her phone lit up on the table.
A message from a number she didn't recognize — a different number than the one Beatrice had used.
*You should have stayed gone.*
Mara read it once.
Set the phone face-down.
May you like
Then she picked it back up and forwarded the message to Marcus with one line beneath it.
*Add it to the file.*
