Chapter 12: The Second Folder

"Why is Petra coming to see you?" I asked.

"I'm afraid I can't discuss another client's affairs, Ms Bourke."

"She's not another client. She's my sister."

There was a pause on the line, long enough that I thought he'd hung up.

"Ten o'clock," he said. "Please be prompt."

His office was on the first floor of a Georgian house on Merrion Square, over the railings and the wet black trees.

It had tall windows, green walls, a coal fire and shelves of bound law reports nobody had opened since the eighties.

He met me at the door himself.

Up close, in daylight, he looked older than he had at the Fitzsimonses' table. His collar was loose on his neck.

"Thank you for coming. Please sit."

There was one sheet of paper on his desk, with a pen laid neatly beside it.

I read it standing up.

Received from Fitzsimons & Sons the sum of €431,820 in full and final settlement of all claims against the company, its directors and their families.

"Full and final," I said.

"It's standard wording."

"It means I can never ask where the money came from."

He didn't answer that.

"I'll sign that I received it," I said. "I won't sign that it's over."

He looked down at the paper for a long moment.

Then he took off his reading glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Ms Bourke. I drafted your statement."

"I know."

"I drafted it as instructed."

He said it to the desk, not to me.

"I have acted for that family for thirty years. I want you to know that I read it back afterward, and I was not proud."

Keep reading free with an account. Start I Funded Their Empire for Years, So They Sent Me the Bill from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.