Chapter 2 - Assembling the Arsenal
Jillian didn’t sleep. By 4:00 AM, she was at a 24-hour diner, using a burner phone to call the one person she trusted with her life: Sarah Bennett. Sarah was a former federal prosecutor who now ran the most ruthless, high-stakes family law firm in Chicago.
“Jillian?” Sarah’s groggy voice answered. “You aren't supposed to be stateside for another month.”
“I’m back, Sarah. And Mark took Leo.”
The line went dead quiet. “Where are you?”
An hour later, Sarah sat across from Jillian in the diner booth, watching the footage on the laptop. The seasoned attorney’s face paled as she watched Vivian and Mark plot the legal theft of a fifty-million-dollar estate while a five-year-old cried in a closet.
“He’s filed an emergency ex parte order,” Sarah said, her voice shaking with restrained fury. “He claims you have PTSD, that you’re violent, and that you threatened him. The hearing is December 24th. Christmas Eve.”
“He thinks I’m going to show up hysterical, screaming about my rights, proving his point to the judge,” Jillian said, her eyes dead and focused.
“What do you want to do, Jill?”
“I want to let him think he’s winning. I want him to walk into that courtroom feeling like a king. And then, I want you to burn his kingdom to the ground.”
May you like
Sarah smiled, a predatory gleam in her eye. “I’ll get the subpoenas ready. We’re going to need a forensic tech to authenticate this drive so Mark can’t claim it’s a deepfake.”
“I have a guy,” Jillian said. “He works for the NSA. Mark is about to learn what happens when you cross a woman with security clearance.”
