𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗩𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗮 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲.
𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐞
I am the judge, the jury, and the executioner.
Francesca "Frank" Monroe. One of the most successful criminal defense attorneys in the history of Chicago. The woman everyone...
"A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green."
- Francis Bacon
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My family was falling apart. Theodore had locked himself away, drowning in shame so thick you could feel it just standing outside his door. Our name was dragged through the fucking dirt. A legacy built over decades, tainted by a scandal so juicy it had the entire city buzzing.
And me? I was losing my fucking mind.
How the hell had I missed it? How the fuck had I not seen the signs? My cousin Daniel tangled up in a sick affair with his own father's girlfriend. Let that sink in. His father's girlfriend. The enemy knew before I did. That little nugget of betrayal spread like wildfire in my chest, scorching me from the inside.
Daniel didn't even have the balls to stick around after the blow-up. He and that conniving bitch packed up and fled the second their dirty secret came to light. Fucking cowards. And my uncle didn't even bother to chase them, he didn't fight. He just... shut down. The scandal gutted him. Destroyed him. Watching him like that—silent, hollow—made my chest ache in a way I hadn't thought possible.
I threw myself into the investigation, because what else was I going to do? Nights turned into weeks of combing through surveillance footage, digging through digital forensics, and enduring meeting after meeting with cybersecurity experts who couldn't find their asses with both hands. Every lead was a fucking dead end, and every theory was nothing but a wild goose chase. I was chasing shadows, trying to find the ghost who blew up my family.
But I wasn't going to stop until I found that cocksucker who orchestrated this disaster and made him pay.
But I had to keep it together. At least for the two women sitting at the breakfast table waiting for me. As I walked into the dining room, I forced a smile and leaned down to kiss my mother's forehead. "Morning, beautiful," I said, my voice softer than I felt.
Her face lit up, her tired eyes crinkling as she smiled back at me with warmth I didn't deserve. That smile—it was a lifeline. "Good morning, honey," she said, her hand brushing my cheek like she was trying to anchor me, to remind me I wasn't completely losing it. And somehow it did just that.
I moved to Maddie next, kissing the top of her head. "Morning, sweetie."
She barely looked up from her coffee, her fingers nervously toying with the edge of the mug. "Morning," she mumbled, her voice heavy.
Mom broke the silence first. "Any word from Daniel?" she asked, her voice calm, but I could hear the crack in it, that faint tremor that made my blood boil. She was trying to hold it together, too.
