Chapter 5 - The Queen’s GambitTwo weeks later.
The afternoon sun poured through the floor-to-ceiling windows of my newly redecorated home office, casting a warm golden glow across my mahogany desk.
Outside in the front yard, a gentle breeze rustled the emerald-green maple trees. Inside, the house was filled with the soft, comforting sounds of two healthy babies cooing in their nursery down the hall.
The legal proceedings had moved with terrifying, beautiful efficiency. Andrew pled guilty to federal wire fraud and embezzlement in exchange for a recommended sentence of six years in federal prison—avoiding a harsher trial while ensuring he would spend the most formative years of his children’s lives behind bars, far away from any influence he or his mother could exert.
Margaret Ellis had quietly packed up her Beacon Hill mansion and moved to Florida, realizing too late that the high-society circles she worshiped had entirely closed their doors to a family disgraced by federal indictments and prison sentences.
My phone buzzed softly on the desk. I glanced down. It was a secure calendar notification from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals confirming my upcoming keynote address at the annual judicial conference.
I smiled, unlocked the screen, and typed a quick reply confirming my attendance.
My secretary, Sarah, stepped into the office carrying a fresh cup of coffee and a stack of newly printed case briefs.
“Good afternoon, Judge,” Sarah said, smiling warmly. “The Supreme Court clerkship applications for next term just arrived. We have over five hundred applicants from Harvard, Yale, and Stanford.”
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I took the cup of coffee, inhaling the rich, dark aroma, and leaned back in my leather chair.
“Send them in, Sarah,” I said, looking out the window toward the sunlit lawn where my children were growing up safe, loved, and entirely protected. “Let’s see who is actually qualified to sit in my courtroom.”
