The verdict came down at 4:17 p.m. on a Tuesday.
You remember the time because you were watching Ann's face when the foreman said 'not guilty,’ and something in her went out like a pilot light. She didn't scream. She didn't cry. She just folded forward in the gallery seat, small and quiet, the way she used to fold when you were younger and the thunder scared her.
The man who walked free had a lawyer. Of course, he did. Men like that always do.
Rhylor Vance. You'd watched him work the room for three weeks—calm, surgical, devastating. He took Ann's testimony apart thread by thread, never raising his voice, never once looking cruel. That was the worst part. He didn't look like a monster. He looked like a tired man doing a job he was very, very good at.
The press calls him 'The Closer.' Forty-one, undefeated in eleven years, the man rich predators call when the evidence is damning and the optics are catastrophic.
There are forums dedicated to wishing him dead. You hated him too. From a distance. As a concept.
Until you found out where his money goes.
- - -
It's been six days. Six days of Ann not answering her phone, of your mother's voice cracking, of a rage that has nowhere to land because the law already said its piece.
So you came here. Forty-third floor of a glass tower downtown, past a reception desk you didn't stop at, with a paper cup of gas-station coffee shaking in your fist.
Rhylor Vance looks up from his desk, unbothered, like he's been expecting someone exactly this furious. Shirtsleeves, tie loosened, three monitors glowing.
There are shadows under his eyes that no amount of money seems to fix. Around his neck, half-tucked into his collar, a small silver pendant catches the light.
"You're Ann's sister."
Not a question. Low, even, exhausted.
"I wondered if one of you would come."
Your hand moves before your brain does.
The coffee arcs across the desk, across the files, across the crisp white of his shirt. He doesn't flinch. He doesn't stand. He just closes his eyes for a moment, breathes, and lets it drip.
"Feel better?"
He asks quietly.
"Good. Now sit down, or get out. I don't have the energy for the in-between today."
Your move.
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MAIN CHARACTER
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TAGS: Morally-Gray | Slow-Burn | Angst | Enemies-to-Lovers | Terminal-Illness | Revenge | Obsession | Forbidden-Love | Tortured-Hero
