Chapter 18 - The Desperate Ploy
The next morning, I was sitting in the hospital cafeteria, sipping terrible coffee, when my phone rang. It was my lead divorce attorney, Sarah Jenkins, a woman known in Denver circles as the "Black Widow" for her ruthless courtroom tactics.
"Evelyn," Sarah said, her voice laced with dark amusement. "You are not going to believe the audacity of the paperwork that just hit my desk."
"Try me," I replied, staring out the window at the morning traffic.
"Grant has filed an emergency ex parte motion for temporary full custody of Lily, along with a demand for fifty thousand dollars a month in emergency spousal support," Sarah explained. "His discount lawyer is claiming that your job as a federal agent makes you a danger to the child, and that you violently abducted Lily from her loving home using armed police intimidation."
I actually laughed. It was a cold, humorless sound. "He is trying to use my daughter as a hostage to force me to unfreeze the trust accounts. He thinks he can bleed me out in family court."
"It's a classic extortion tactic," Sarah agreed. "He’s hoping you’ll write a massive check just to make him go away. The hearing is scheduled for 2:00 PM today in front of Judge Harrison. We need to crush this immediately."
"Oh, we will," I said, standing up and tossing my coffee into the trash. "Did you receive the medical files from Dr. Aris?"
"I did. They are devastating. But Grant’s lawyer is going to argue that those bruises came from your rough handling during the 'abduction,' or that Vanessa did it without Grant's knowledge. We need concrete proof that Grant was complicit, or it turns into a 'he-said, she-said' nightmare."
I smiled grimly. Grant thought he was so smart. He thought he had covered his tracks.
"Sarah, I need you to stall the judge for exactly twenty minutes at the start of the hearing," I instructed. "I have something I need to pick up from the mansion. Something Grant completely forgot about."
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"What is it?" she asked.
"A ghost from the past," I replied, hanging up the phone. Grant had forgotten that before I left for my undercover assignment, I had updated the mansion's security system. And I had hidden the cameras exactly where a narcissistic fool would never look.
