Page 63 of The Silent Hour

Rafa's chin came up. "What?"

"He has a daughter."

Serena's pen stopped mid-rotation.

Knox's frown deepened. "Cortez has a daughter?"

"Apparently."

"Who?"

I looked around the table. "Lila Marino."

Absolute fucking silence aside from Serena saying something in Italian that didn't need translation. Rafa stared at me like he was waiting for the correction. Knox slowly uncrossed his ankles and let both feet drop to the floor.

Caleb blinked twice, his pen hovering an inch above the page.

Then Knox said what everyone else appeared to be thinking. "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

"I wish."

Serena leaned forward. "Does she know?"

"That Cortez is her father? Apparently, to some degree. Whether she understands the full extent of his business, I don't know. According to Cortez, she doesn't know he approached us or that he intends to demand she work on his defense."

Rafa frowned. "Demand?"

"He wants her on the case."

"Absolutely fucking not," Serena snapped.

"Already told him staffing decisions belong to me."

Caleb finally spoke. "What does he claim she knows?"

"Information that isn't contained in discovery. He wouldn't specify."

Caleb looked back down at his notes. His pen moved once, stopped, moved again—a small correction to something already written. "Then that's not evidence of anything."

Exactly. Serena looked at him like he'd said it in a language she didn't speak. "He specifically wants his secret daughter on his defense team. You don't find that suspicious?"

"I find Cortez suspicious," Caleb replied, without looking up. "That does not establish Marino's knowledge or involvement."

Katerina gave the slightest nod. It was the kind of nod that closed a door. "She warrants scrutiny. She does not yet warrant accusation."

Rafa exhaled through his nose and dragged a hand over his jaw, the rasp of it audible in the quiet. "Christ."

"That's where we are."

Knox leaned forward, forearms coming down flat against the table. “So what happens now?"

I couldn’t outright fire her.

I had no idea what her stake was in the all this and until I found out I wouldn’t be acting rash. She was talented. The firm had invested in her and until now, the issue had been narrow enough that I believed it could be corrected.

Serena looked between us all, "So we're supposed to sit across from her and discuss her inappropriate behavior while pretending we don't know she's Dominic Cortez's daughter?"

"For now? Yes."