My husband waited until my son and I finished dinner.

Three months later, the courtroom in downtown Washington, D.C., was packed to capacity with reporters, legal teams, and federal investigators. At the center witness table sat Rachel Hayes and Daniel Vance, their posture calm, dignified, and resolute.

The trial of the corporate executive board had been swift and decisive, anchored entirely by the unbreakable chain of digital evidence secured from the senior partner’s vault and transmitted through the federal annex bunker. The systemic environmental negligence, the slush funds, and the cover-up had been exposed in meticulous, undeniable detail, leading to the indictment of twelve high-level corporate officers and several compromised federal regulators.

Rachel adjusted her badge lanyard—this time wearing her new credentials as senior director of federal compliance auditing—and looked across the gallery. Sitting in the front row next to a state-appointed family counselor was Toby, wearing a clean dark jacket and holding a small sketchpad in his lap. The boy looked up, caught Rachel’s eye, and gave her a small, bright smile, holding up a drawing of a shining sun over a green valley.