Chapter 22 - The Appellate Shark
Within the hour, I was sitting in the sleek, glass-walled conference room of my own legal counsel. Marcus Thorne was a brilliant, pragmatic attorney who had meticulously guided me through the initial trial. He read the appellate notice twice, his jaw clenched so tightly I could see the muscle ticking.
"Sterling, Vance, & Caldwell don't take cases unless they see a clear path to victory, or a massive paycheck," Marcus stated, tossing the document onto the glass table. "Daniel’s assets were entirely frozen and seized to pay restitution. He shouldn't have the capital to hire a firm that charges a thousand dollars an hour."
"He has hidden money," I said immediately. "He must have. We tracked millions through the shell companies, but Daniel was paranoid. He always kept a backup plan. A rainy-day fund he never disclosed."
"If he has hidden assets, we need to prove it," Marcus said, leaning forward. "If we can trace the retainer fee back to an undisclosed offshore account, we can completely destroy this appeal before it even reaches a judge. The court will penalize him for concealing assets."
"What about their argument?" I asked. "The illegal search?"
"It’s a Hail Mary, but a dangerous one," Marcus warned. "They are arguing that because you were not listed as an administrator on his private server, your acquisition of the evidence violated his privacy rights. They want the financial motive for the tragedy stricken from the record. If they succeed, they could argue for a mistrial based on prejudice."
I stood up and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, looking out over the city. I had painstakingly built an entire sanctuary for my children's memory. The thought of Daniel walking free, breathing the same air as the families he had destroyed, was physically nauseating.
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"I won't let him rewrite the narrative," I said softly, turning back to Marcus. "If Daniel has hidden money funding this appeal, I will find it. I tore his empire down once. I can do it again."
"Be careful," Marcus warned, his eyes narrowing. "A desperate man with a high-priced fixer is a very dangerous combination. You aren't just fighting a lawyer in a courtroom anymore. You are fighting whatever shadow he hired on the outside."
