Chapter 15: What She Offered

Anthony's POV

I stood up in Part 14 on Tuesday morning and told the judge I was withdrawing as counsel for Clark Kovach.

"On what ground, Mr. Crane?" the judge asked.

"A conflict I learned of recently, Your Honor. I cannot describe it without harming my former client."

The judge looked at me over her glasses for a long moment.

"Granted," she said. "Mr. Kovach, you may proceed on your own. You are a member of the bar."

Clark rose, gray in the face.

"Yes, Your Honor."

"Ms. Lang, you have something for the court?"

Meredith stood.

She wore the dark gray suit and her father's watch, and her hair was back so tight it must have hurt.

She did not look at me.

I knew exactly where she was not looking.

For three years I had pictured this woman as a signature.

I had pictured a cold hand and a quick pen and a face that never read a word it put its name to.

I had been wrong about the hand.

It was steady, and it did not tremble when she put Clark's own bank statements on the clerk's desk, one by one, with the dates highlighted.

"Mr. Kovach, you told this court in the spring that BR Holdings was your consulting vehicle."

"I did."

"Who is the sole member of BR Holdings?"

Clark stood silent.

"Mr. Kovach."

"Sabrina Rowan."

"Did you sign anything authorizing nine transfers totaling two hundred fourteen thousand dollars?"

"I signed papers," Clark said. His voice cracked. "Bree told me they were routine. I didn't read them."

I saw Meredith's shoulders move, a very small thing.

She had heard her own sentence from the Whitlow file, and she knew it.

"That is a fair description of how people lose everything, Mr. Kovach," she said evenly.

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