Chapter 23

What the Trial Means

The morning after Isabella's arrest, my phone won't stop ringing.

I sit at my desk in the Montgomery Group offices, ignoring three calls from numbers I don't recognize, all of them presumably reporters who somehow got hold of my direct line overnight. The story broke before dawn, Isabella Voss detained at a private airfield attempting to flee under a false identity, and by the time I arrive at work, it's already the top headline on every outlet that covered the scandal last year.

"You're a trending topic." Julian drops into the chair across from my desk, tablet in hand, scrolling through coverage with a grim sort of satisfaction. "Not in the way you were last time, though. This time the headlines are calling you vindicated."

"That's something, I suppose." I close my laptop, unable to focus on quarterly projections with my phone buzzing every few minutes. "What happens now? With the actual case."

"District attorney's office is building charges. Fraud, conspiracy, witness tampering given what she tried to do to Elena's identity, and depending on how the intimidation claims against Delray's sister hold up, possibly extortion as well." Julian sets the tablet down. "It's a strong case, Amara. Stronger than most of what I've seen in white collar prosecutions. But it will take months to actually reach trial."

"Months." I press my fingers against my temple. "I thought this would finally feel finished."

"It will, eventually. Just not overnight." His voice softens slightly. "You don't have to be at every hearing, every filing. You've already given more to this than anyone should have to."

Before I can respond, my assistant knocks lightly on the open door. "Ms. Montgomery, Mr. Frost is here. He says it's not about Lila."

My stomach does something complicated at the mention of his name, an echo of last night's conversation outside the gala still sitting unresolved somewhere in my chest. "Send him in."

Noah enters looking like he hasn't slept, though there's an energy to him I haven't seen in longer than I can remember, something purposeful rather than exhausted.

"I won't take much of your time." He glances briefly at Julian before returning his attention to me. "I wanted to tell you something before you heard it secondhand from the board or the press."

"Tell me what."

"I'm stepping back from day to day operations at Frost Corporation." He says it plainly, like he's already rehearsed the words enough times that they no longer catch in his throat. "Not permanently. But for the next several months, while the investigation and trial proceed, I've asked the board to appoint an interim CEO."

Julian's eyebrows lift slightly, clearly as surprised as I am. "That's a significant move for someone who fought this hard to keep control after the scandal broke."

"I've spent my entire adult life proving I could run that company no matter what it cost me." Noah's eyes stay steady on mine. "It cost me a marriage. It cost me years with my daughter. I'm not interested in paying that price again just to prove a point to a board that already knows I'm capable."

"Then what are you interested in." My voice comes out quieter than I intend.

"Being present." He says it simply, without any of the performance I remember from every carefully worded apology over the last year. "For Lila. For whatever this is between us, even if it never becomes anything more than co-parenting and cautious civility. I don't want to look back in another four years and realize I let the company consume everything again."

The room falls quiet, Julian tactfully occupied with something on his tablet, giving us a strange sliver of privacy despite the open door.

"That's a big change, Noah."

"I know." A small, tired smile tugs at his mouth. "I'm hoping it's a good one."

My phone buzzes against the desk before I can respond, and I glance down automatically, the reflex too ingrained after months of legal chaos to ignore. The message is from an unfamiliar number, and my chest tightens on instinct, memories of anonymous texts and manufactured crises rising fast and unwelcome.

**Unknown:** Ms. Montgomery, this is Detective Reyes with the fraud division. We need you to come in this afternoon regarding new evidence recovered from Ms. Voss's devices. It concerns your daughter's custody history and may require immediate legal attention.

I read it twice, my stomach dropping with each pass.

"What is it." Noah's voice sharpens instantly, reading my expression before I say a word.

I turn the phone toward him wordlessly, and I watch his jaw tighten as he reads it, the same protective alarm rising in his eyes that I feel churning in my own chest.

"Custody history." Julian is already on his feet, reaching for his own phone. "That's an odd phrase for a fraud detective to use unless they found something specific."

"Call the number back," I say, my voice steadier than I feel. "Now, before I spiral into every worst case scenario my mind can invent."

Julian dials immediately, putting it on speaker as it rings twice before connecting.

"Detective Reyes."

"This is Julian Hart, legal counsel for Amara Montgomery. She received your message and would like clarification before coming in."

There's a pause on the line, papers shuffling faintly in the background. "We recovered a sealed file from Ms. Voss's personal safe during the search of her residence. It appears to be adoption paperwork, dated several years before she reappeared in Mr. Frost's life."

"Adoption paperwork." My voice comes out barely above a whisper. "For who."

Another pause, longer this time, and when the detective finally answers, the words land like a blow none of us saw coming.

"For a child listed as Ivy Voss. Except according to these documents, that isn't the child's legal name at all, and the biological mother listed on the original birth certificate isn't Isabella Voss."