Months later, Daniel stepped down as managing partner. The board believed he had lost his edge, but Avery knew he had simply grown tired of fighting the wrong battles.
When she took over his office, she found a deed in the bottom drawer. It was for the apartment building where she and Grace had struggled for years.
Attached was a note in his precise handwriting telling her that the future should not be built on ghosts. She read it twice and decided what to do.
Three months into her leadership, a woman named Linda Ramirez came to the firm with old documents about a land deal from the late nineties. The papers showed that a community center had been demolished for a luxury development, and Daniel had been the lead attorney.
Grace’s signature was on several witness statements. Avery felt the ground shift again.
She drove to the rehabilitation center in Milwaukee where her mother was recovering. She placed the documents on the table and asked, “You helped him do this.”
Grace did not deny it. “We thought we could do one wrong thing and then build a clean life,” she said.
“But we lived in poverty,” Avery replied.