Lahat ng Kabanata ng Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Full Series): Kabanata 61 - Kabanata 70

Chapter 61Jordan POVMaddox’s office had the kind of quiet that made people tell the truth by accident.Not because he decorated it like a confessional—he didn’t. It was clean, modern, deliberate. No family photos. No sentimental clutter. Everything placed with intent. Even the chair across from his desk felt like it had been measured for power dynamics.I’d sat in plenty of intimidating offices before. CEOs. judges. wealthy men who thought their money counted as a personality trait.Maddox Mercer’s office didn’t intimidate me because it was expensive.It intimidated me because it was controlled.And controlled men always believed they could control everyone else.He stood behind his desk when I walked in, jacket off, sleeves rolled to his forearms like he’d been working. If he’d slept, it hadn’t improved his mood. His face was calm in the way a locked door is calm.Kane was gone. Rowan was gone. The hall outside was quiet.Just me and Maddox.And my patience, hanging by a thread.“I

Chapter 63Jordan POVIf there was one thing I’d learned in my career, it was this:People don’t slip when they’re scared.They slip when they’re comfortable.Which meant I wasn’t going to corner Tessa Rhodes in front of the pack and accuse her of feeding a prosecutor. I wasn’t going to wave financial records in her face or threaten her with perjury charges like I was auditioning for a courtroom drama.No.I was going to let her feel like she had the upper hand.Let her get petty.Let her get personal.Then I’d watch her mouth run one inch past her brain.Tessa didn’t strike me as the type to panic.She struck me as the type to tidy chaos and call it loyalty.I found her where she wanted to be found—on the east side of the packhouse, in the wide glass-walled sitting room that looked out over the property. It was designed to impress guests. And by “guests,” I meant humans who needed to believe the mansion on Mercer land was a private estate and not… whatever it really was.She was seat

Chapter 65Jordan POVMy life had become a rotating schedule of disasters.Some wore suits. Some wore uniforms. Some wore perfectly pressed linen and smiled like they had never once felt guilt in their entire lives.And some sat in a warehouse parking lot at two in the morning, waiting for a man to walk out of a shipping bay with somebody else’s misery in his trunk.Roger Teller called it “evidence recovery.”I called it “the part of being a defense attorney nobody puts on a billboard.”My phone buzzed on the desk in the small office Mercer assigned me—technically a “suite study,” practically a panic room with better lighting. I’d been staring at my case board for so long the string and notes had started to look like a conspiracy theory a bored teenager built in a basement.It wasn’t a conspiracy theory.It was just real life wearing a Halloween mask.PI Group Chat (Roger, Cal): On site. Warehouse off Route 9. I’m in position.I stared at the text, then at the clock.2:13 a.m.Of cour

Chapter 67Jordan POVElias didn’t need to say my name twice.The room had already tilted.I stood there for half a beat—brain sorting, body wanting to panic, pride refusing to give it the satisfaction—then snapped into the only mode that’s ever saved me: work.“Okay,” I said, voice steadier than I felt. “Library. Now. I want Kane and Rowan. And I want this house quiet.”Elias blinked like he hadn’t expected me to take the wheel that fast.Maddox didn’t.He turned immediately, already moving toward the hall. “Kane,” he said, low into the air like the name itself was a command.I followed, grabbing my pad, the photos, and the printed threat messages. I didn’t look at my bed. If I looked at my bed, I might remember we were inches from making a career-ending decision ten minutes ago.Not happening.Not tonight.In the hallway, Elias slipped ahead. Maddox matched my pace, just close enough that I was aware of him without wanting to be. His gaze stayed forward. Controlled. Guarded.But his

Chapter 69Jordan POVDawn shows up like it owns the place.Not in a poetic way—just in the rude, practical way that daylight has of making everything look more real than it did at three a.m. The packhouse feels different in the morning. Less like a secret and more like a building full of people who have no choice but to pretend they’re normal.I’m in the common room before the first car hits the drive, folder in my hands, hair pulled back tight enough to mean business, coffee untouched because my stomach is doing that thing where it tries to convince me it’s helping by turning into a knot.Kane is already here, standing near the front windows like he’s a second set of locks. Rowan is on the far side of the room with that stillness that isn’t calm—it’s controlled violence, boxed up and taped shut. Elias is… not visible, which is exactly how Elias functions when things get dangerous.Maddox is by the fireplace, posture relaxed in a way that would fool an outsider.It doesn’t fool me.H