The holding cell was cold, uncomfortable, and filled with women who looked at Nancy's designer dress with understandable skepticism.
"White collar?" asked a woman with tattooed arms.
"Framed," Nancy corrected.
"Aren't we all, honey."
Nancy leaned against the wall, closing her eyes, thinking. Sonia's plan was elegant in its cruelty—use Nancy's return, her meeting with Adrian, to create opportunity and motive. The digital signatures would be forensic nightmares to dispute. The emails, nearly impossible to distinguish from real communications.
But Sonia had made mistakes. She'd been too eager, too thorough, too convinced of her own cleverness. And she'd underestimated Nancy's preparation.
"Phone call," a guard announced. "Make it quick."
Nancy dialed the only number that mattered. "James? I need you to do something illegal."
"Ms. Clark, you're in jail."
"Exactly. Which means I have nothing to lose." She spoke quickly, outlining her plan—a digital trap, a financial trace, a way to prove the emails were forged by tracking the metadata to its source. "Can you do it?"
"Technically, yes. Legally..." James hesitated. "Are you sure? If I'm caught—"
"Then I'll hire the best lawyer in the world to defend you. But James, I need this. I need to prove Sonia's behind this, to clear my name, to..." Nancy's voice broke slightly. "To show him that trust isn't about evidence. It's about choosing to believe."
"I'll do it," James said immediately. "But Ms. Clark? There's something else. Your mother. The hospital called. She's asking for you."
Nancy's heart clenched. Her mother, who'd fought so hard, who'd survived because of Nancy's secret payments, who didn't know her daughter was in prison.
"Tell her I'm traveling. Tell her I'll call soon." Nancy wipedNancy wiped her eyes, steeling herself. "Just find the evidence, James. Please."
She hung up, returning to her cold bench, to the waiting, to the uncertainty. But for the first time since the arrest, she felt hope. Not because of Adrian—she'd stopped expecting rescue from that quarter—but because of herself. Her resources. Her determination.
I saved myself before , she thought. I'll do it again.