Amelia delivered the news in person.
Gavin sat across from her in a private consultation room, his eyes searching her face as though trying to read the verdict before she spoke.
“Well?” he asked.
Amelia smiled.
It was small, but it was real.
“They’re reopening the case.”
Gavin stared.
“The judge signed the order this morning,” she continued. “We’ll have subpoena power. We can question Avery. We can bring in Ortiz. We can challenge the evidence transfer. We can force them to explain what happened to the ledger and the recorder.”
Gavin lowered his head.
His shoulders began to shake.
Amelia stood uncertainly, then walked around the table and placed a hand on his back.
He was not crying the way people cried in movies. No dramatic collapse. No loud release. Just a quiet trembling, the sound of a man who had held himself together so long he no longer knew how to let go.
