The name glowing in high-contrast blue on my phone screen was not a financial institution, nor was it a shady shell company created to hide off-shore assets.

On the other side of the glass sat Ryan. He looked stripped of all his arrogant vanity. His expensive designer shirt was wrinkled, his hair was matted, and his hands were cuffed to the metal table.

Sitting across from him was Agent Miller.

“We have your digital signatures on forty-two separate wire transfers, Ryan,” Agent Miller said, laying out a thick stack of printed financial logs. “You used your wife’s trust account to clear loans through offshore banks in Cyprus. That’s federal wire fraud, carrying a minimum sentence of twenty years.”

“I was framed!” Ryan yelled, his voice cracking with hysteria. “It was my mother! And Helen! They told me it was legal family money! They said Audrey’s grandfather owed us!”

“Your mother isn’t talking,” Agent Miller noted coldly. “She invoked her right to counsel forty minutes ago. Her attorneys just arrived from Chicago—some of the most expensive defense lawyers in the country. They aren’t here to defend you, Ryan. They’re here to make sure you take the fall.”

Ryan blinked rapidly, the reality of his isolation finally hitting him like a physical blow. “What...? No... my mother wouldn’t do that to me. She loves me! Everything I did was for her!”

“Your mother used you as a proxy shield,” Agent Miller said, leaning forward. “If this goes to trial, you’re looking at thirty years in maximum security. Unless you give us Helen Sokolov.”

Ryan dropped his head into his handcuffed hands, sobbing audibly.

I turned away from the mirror and walked out into the observation hallway, where Arthur was waiting with the Assistant District Attorney, a sharp-eyed woman named Karen Reyes.

“Will he break?” Reyes asked me.

“He’s a coward, Ms. Reyes,” I answered coolly. “He only acts strong when he’s stepping on someone smaller than him. The second he realizes his mother has abandoned him to save herself, he will sell out everyone he has ever met.”

“And what about this hard drive you brought us?” Reyes inquired, looking at the black device sitting in a clear evidence bag in Arthur’s hands.

“That drive contains the complete ledger of the Sokolov network’s international holdings from 1990 to 2015,” I said. “It proves that every asset Lorraine and Helen claim to own in the United States was acquired through illegal money laundering. If you use this, you don’t just convict Ryan. You seize everything the Sokolov family owns.”

Reyes studied my face for a long moment, a slight smile touching her lips. “You don’t look like the quiet school administrator your file described, Miss Montgomery.”

“The quiet administrator died yesterday when my mother-in-law tore my dress,” I replied.

At that moment, an officer rushed down the hallway, looking frantic.

“Agent Miller!” the officer shouted, pulling open the door to the interrogation room. “We have a breach in the holding block! Lorraine Sterling’s attorneys just produced an emergency bail order signed by a state judge!”