Chapter 40 Chapter forty
DEV
Six weeks later, I stood in Sarah Chen's office reviewing documents for what felt like the thousandth time, trying not to think about the fact that the trial started in seventy-two hours.
Six weeks of discovery. Six weeks of witness preparation. Six weeks of watching Crown Estate's lawyers build their case while we scrambled to build ours.
And six weeks of watching Aanya become someone I barely recognized.
Not in a bad way. In a way that was both terrifying and beautiful.
She had thrown herself into the community centre work with an intensity that worried me. Twelve-hour days. Weekends spent researching educational policy and housing law. Learning the system inside and out so she could actually help the families who needed her.
Rosa had told me privately that Aanya was the best hire she had ever made. That families were requesting her specifically. That she had somehow managed to secure funding for three additional tutoring programs by writing grant applications that nobody had thought to pursue before.
The naive princess with no professional expertise had become indispensable.
But it was costing her. I could see it in the shadows under her eyes. In the way she sometimes stared at nothing, exhausted beyond words. In how she had lost weight she could not afford to lose.
We still saw each other most evenings. Still fell asleep tangled together more nights than not. But there was a distance growing between us that I did not know how to bridge.
She was fighting her own war with Crown Estate. Proving them wrong about her competence by becoming excellent at work they had dismissed as beneath notice. And I was fighting mine with research and witnesses and preparation for trial.
We were on the same side. Fighting the same enemy. But somehow we were doing it separately.
"Dev, are you listening?"
Sarah's voice pulled me back to the present. I looked up from the documents I had been staring at without actually reading.
"Sorry. What did you say?"
"I said we have a problem. A significant one." Sarah pulled up an email on her screen, turned it toward me. "This arrived an hour ago. From Margaret Hartwell's office."
I read the email. Then read it again, trying to process what I was seeing.
Crown Estate had found a witness. A former colleague of my father's. Antonio Ruiz. He was prepared to testify that Lorenzo had frequently ignored safety protocols. That he had been warned multiple times about his behavior. That the accident was the result of Lorenzo's own negligence, not institutional failure.
"This is bullshit," I said. "My father was meticulous about safety. Everyone who worked with him said so."
"Everyone you interviewed said so. Crown Estate found someone who says the opposite. And he is willing to testify under oath."
"They paid him. They had to have paid him."
"Probably. But we cannot prove that. And his testimony, if the jury believes it, undermines your entire argument. If your father ignored safety protocols, then Crown Estate is not responsible for his death. And if they are not responsible for his death, then your research looks like exactly what they claim it is. A son seeking revenge for a tragedy that was not actually institutional wrongdoing."
I felt sick. "When do they disclose this witness?"
"They already did. This morning. Which gives us three days to investigate him, prepare a response, and figure out how to counter his testimony."
"Three days."
"Three days." Sarah looked at me seriously. "Dev, I need to ask you something. Is there any possibility this man is telling the truth? Any chance your father was careless about safety?"
"No. Absolutely not. My father was obsessive about proper procedure. He drove other workers crazy with his insistence on doing everything by the book. There is no way he ignored safety protocols."
"Then someone needs to prove that. Fast. Can you find witnesses who will contradict Ruiz? Other colleagues who worked with your father and can testify to his safety practices?"
"Most of them are still working in construction. They are not going to risk their jobs by testifying against Crown Estate."
"Then we have a problem. Because right now, Crown Estate has a witness who says your father was negligent. And we have your word that he was not. That is not going to be enough."
My phone rang. Giulia.
"Dev, you need to come to hospital. Now. It is Mum."
The world tilted.
"What happened?"
"She collapsed at work again. They are saying her heart. She needs surgery. They want to do it today. You need to come now."
I looked at Sarah. "My mother. I have to go."
"Go. We will figure this out. But Dev, we need those witnesses. If your mother is all right, if you can, we need you to find people who worked with your father and will testify. We have three days."
I barely heard her. I was already out the door.