“She gave them the ledger in exchange for a lighter plea.”

“They are all going to federal custody tonight.”

I let out a breath I felt like I had been holding for months.

The weight in my chest finally began to lift.

“Thank you,” I murmured.

Dante looked at me, his dark eyes softening in the dim light of the cabin.

“You do not need to thank me,” he said.

“You are safe now.”

The weeks that followed were filled with deposition rooms and fluorescent lighting.

I sat at a long mahogany table, my hand resting on my growing belly.

The federal prosecutors were thorough.

They played the recordings Dante had gathered.

They showed the paper trail Vanessa Hale had meticulously detailed to save herself.

Marcus sat across from me once during a joint deposition.

He looked gaunt in his orange jumpsuit, the skin under his eyes dark and bruised.

He did not look like the confident man I had married.

He looked like a stranger who had stolen years of my life.

“Alessia, please,” he whispered when the guards turned their backs.