Detroit, MI:
Isabella sat in her office, head buried in a stack of files. Her mind was racing between the legal strategy she had to build for Monica and the emotional storm she'd been fighting internally. The betrayal still stung, but her duty as a lawyer, her sense of justice, forced her to keep going.
She'd barely slept, and when she did, her dreams were vivid and unsettling, replaying the conversation she'd had with Monica. Monica's words echoed in her mind, making her question everything she thought she knew. Was Monica truly a victim of her family's cruelty, or had she fully embraced their manipulative ways? Could she really justify defending her?
A soft knock on the door pulled her from her thoughts. Lilah walked in, holding a thick stack of papers and wearing a serious and exhausted expression, "I have every single thing on the Rowlands, and after reading everything I want to take a shower." Lilah spoke with a sigh.
"Anything we didn't expect?" Izzy asked.
Lilah took a deep breath. "Oh, there's plenty. Embezzlement, fraud, even some mafia ties going back a generation. But the most damning is the stuff tied to Monica's parents. They've been into some deep shit for a long time, human trafficking, organized crime, the works."
Isabella leaned back in her chair, rubbing her temples, "Great, just what I needed."
"Are you sure we're doing this? Defending her?" Lilah asked.
"I don't have much of a choice. I can't just let her go down without a defense, and... Justin. He's still attached to her in a way I'll never understand. We have to handle this carefully." Isabella replied honestly, and she could see the hurt written across Lilah's face. Isabella looked over at Ellie standing in the doorway. "Yes?"
"Zach wants to talk to you." She said.
"Send him in, I had him do some digging on Monica's family, so whatever is not on paper, Zach knows it." Isabella replied and Ellie nodded. "Here take a seat, you're still lead on this case so you need to know everything."
"Hey Izzy." Zach greeted her like a school boy with a crush the moment he entered her office.
"Zach." She greeted him with a small smile as he sat across from her. "So what's going on?"
"So Monica's mother is still alive, she's doing her time at the max security facility just an hour from here. She's still very well connected and get this she's had private investigators tailing Monica for years. Turns out I was wrong about the Miguel thing." He opened a file as he'd sat it down flipping a few pages before he slid it over to Izzy. Her father arranged for this to happen, looks like he'd owed Miguel's father some money Monica was passed around for a whole weekend with Miguel being one of the men included. Unfortunately, Miguel took a liking to Monica, and whenever he wanted her, her father made it happen."
"How'd you find this information?" Isabella asked reading the printed text messages on the sheet of paper.
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Residuals (COMPLETED)
Fanfiction"I just can't stand Ben anymore." She admitted truthfully, and maybe she would have kept this information to herself if she wasn't drunk. "All he does is drink and plays video games, we don't sleep together, he hasn't touched me in almost a year I'm...
