Chapter 9 - The Leak.
The courthouse administrator reported the suspected unauthorized access to state investigators before sunrise.
Elias learned about it the same way every other judge in the building did.
Through an emergency security bulletin.
He immediately disclosed his relationship to Nora again and asked not to receive investigative details beyond what was necessary for courthouse operations.
Marcus did the opposite.
By noon, his public-relations team released a statement accusing “politically motivated actors connected to a prominent judicial family” of manufacturing a cyber scandal during a private divorce.
The statement never named Elias.
It did not need to.
Television trucks appeared outside the courthouse by lunchtime.
Nora watched the coverage from Dana’s office.
One commentator displayed an old photograph of Elias swearing in a governor.
Another displayed a society-page image of Marcus donating five million dollars to a children’s hospital.
The split screen made the story look like a battle between powerful men.
Nora hated it.
“I’m disappearing again,” she said.
Dana muted the television.
“What do you mean?”
“They’re making this about Marcus versus my father.”
Dana nodded.
“So change the frame.”
“How?”
“By speaking through evidence.”
Dana placed three folders on the desk.
The first contained Caleb’s access logs.
The second contained the nursery video and Marcus’s messages.
The third contained bank records produced after the court ordered temporary financial disclosure.
Nora opened the third folder.
She saw transfers from Hale Communities consulting accounts to a company called Reed Strategy Partners.
Vanessa’s last name sat on every page.
The payments totaled more than eight hundred thousand dollars over three years.
“What did she do for the company?” Nora asked.
“Marcus says strategic communications.”
“She was a boutique event planner when I met her.”
Dana slid another page forward.
Reed Strategy Partners had been created eleven days before the first payment.
Its registered mailing address was a private mailbox.
Its listed manager was Vanessa Reed.
Nora turned the page.
A second company appeared.
North Crown Holdings.
That company had received transfers from Reed Strategy Partners and later purchased a lakeside house Nora had never seen.
The owner of North Crown Holdings was hidden behind a registered agent.
Dana had obtained a property-tax mailing record.
The bills went to Marcus’s corporate office.
Nora stared at the numbers.
“He bought her a house.”
“Possibly.”
“With marital money.”
“Possibly.”
Dana was careful because careful words survived courtrooms.
Nora continued reading.
Then she found a transfer dated two days after she told Marcus she was pregnant.
Two hundred thousand dollars.
The memo line said RETENTION.
Nora’s mouth went dry.
“Retention for what?”
Dana shook her head.
“That is what discovery is for.”
A knock sounded at the office door.
Dana’s assistant entered holding a padded envelope.
“No return address.”
Inside was a cheap flash drive and a handwritten note.
ASK VANESSA WHAT MARCUS PROMISED HER AFTER THE BABY WAS BORN.
Dana did not plug the drive into her computer.
She sealed it in an evidence bag and called the investigator.
Nora stared at the note.
The handwriting looked unfamiliar.
Then she noticed the paper.
It carried a faint embossed logo in one corner.
Hale Communities Executive Offices.
May you like
Someone inside Marcus’s company was feeding them evidence.
And whoever it was knew far more than the affair.
