"My Husband Ordered Me to Endure Two Hundred Lashes for His Mistress. I Called My Father Only Once: 'Dad… Just Like You Told Me. End Him.' Five Minutes Later, His Empire Began to Collapse."

To fight a monster with infinite legal resources, Evelyn needed a gladiator in a suit. She found one in Julian Sterling.

Julian was a notoriously cynical, razor-sharp attorney who specialized in tearing apart corporate monopolies. He walked into Blackthorn Manor looking entirely out of place among the pastel reading nooks, wearing a sharp charcoal suit and carrying an unyielding aura of confidence.

Evelyn met him in her office.

"Ms. Carter," Julian said, taking a seat without waiting for an invitation. "I read the file. Marcus Thorne is using a ghost-lien. It's dirty, it's illegal, but with the judges he has in his pocket, it might just work."

"I didn't bring you here to tell me it might work, Mr. Sterling," Evelyn said, leaning forward. "I brought you here to crush him."

Julian’s lips twitched into a rare smirk. "I like your style. But to crush him, we need proof that the lien is fraudulent. We need the original, unredacted financial ledgers between him and your ex-husband."

Evelyn’s heart skipped a beat. "Adrian’s private ledgers. The FBI confiscated everything."

"Not everything," Maya’s voice came from the doorway. She stepped into the office, looking terrified but resolute. "Marcus was laughing about it last week. He said Adrian was paranoid and kept a physical ‘kill-switch’ ledger hidden somewhere the Feds would never look."