Nadia pulled a thick manila envelope from her bag.

“Three weeks ago, Elena started getting letters,” Nadia said.

She held the envelope out, but she did not give it to Luke.

She pointed it at his chest like a weapon.

“They weren’t signed by Arthur Mercer, of course,” she said.

“Who sent them?” Luke demanded.

“A legal firm representing a shell company called Aegis Meridian,” Nadia said.

Marco stiffened beside Luke.

“Aegis Meridian is a subsidiary of Mercer Holdings,” Marco said quietly.

“Exactly,” Nadia said.

She threw the envelope onto the bedside table.

It landed with a heavy thud next to the plastic pitcher of water.

“They threatened her with a multi-million dollar lawsuit,” Nadia said.

“On what grounds?” Luke asked.

“Corporate espionage,” Nadia said.

The word seemed to hang in the sterile air of the room.

“They claimed she stole proprietary financial algorithms from Mercer Holdings during your marriage.”

“That’s impossible,” Luke said, his face hardening. “Elena never had access to those files.”

“They didn’t care about the truth,” Nadia said.

“They told her she would spend the rest of her life in a federal penitentiary.”