Page 55 of Rivals and Liars

The three of them settle around a round table in the corner of the spacious office, and the attorney opens her laptop and puts on her reading glasses.

"So, Mr. Melero has already filled me in, Leire, which means we can skip the part where you have to walk me through the uncomfortable details. We'll work from what I know. Does that work for you, or is there something you'd like to add?"

"That works," Leire says. She's wearing a polo shirt and jeans, and she undoes the top button because she suddenly can't breathe.

"Based on what I've been told," Patricia begins, glancing briefly at Isaac and then back at her, "the conduct could be attributed to at least three offenses. The first and most straightforward is unauthorized recording and disclosure of private information under Article 197 of the Penal Code. Installing recording devices in a private space without consent is a crime, regardless of whether the images were ever distributed." Patricia pushes her glasses up with one finger, and Leire decides the woman is elegant and refined without even trying. "The second is distribution of intimate images without consent, covered under Section 197.7 — in this case it would be attempted, since the journalist never actually published them. And the third, depending on how we frame the facts, could be coercion, provided we can establish that the intent was to pressure you into changing your behavior."

At some point Leire has pressed her hands flat against the table, and she's staring at her fingers as she takes it all in.

"Are you all right?" the attorney asks. "Can I get you some water?"

Leire looks up and blinks.

"No, I'm sorry. I'm fine. Is all of that enough to file a report?"

"Absolutely, but you need to understand how this works in practice." The woman opens a notepad and jots down a word, underlines it.

It's a habit of hers — writing out the key points on a sheet she later hands to her client, a kind of mental map so nothing gets lost.

"Once a complaint is filed, the investigation can take anywhere from one to three years. It's not a fast process." Leire isn't surprised; she's always known how slowly justice moves in Spain. "What does happen fairly quickly is the evidence preservation order, which we'll request from day one — making sure the devices and the images are placed under court custody. That matters because it takes away his ability to use them."

"What if he's already deleted everything? I'm sure he has," Leire says.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Data can almost always be recovered, but if nothing could be pulled from his phone — in the hypothetical case that he's gotten rid of it — we still have the journalist's." Patricia searches for her name on the laptop. "Candela Valle. Though that does complicate things, because we'd have to prove that the number the images were sent from was your father's. Either way, we'll work through it as we go."

"Okay," Leire says. She feels like a six-year-old being walked through a lesson.

"I also need to know whether the other party — Kate Brogan — intends to file as well, or whether you'll be doing this on your own."

"She's filing too," the tennis player offers, and the attorney notes it down. "But she's not in the country right now. She won't be back for a couple of weeks."

"That's not a problem. We'll prepare her portion of the complaint and have everything ready for her to sign when she gets back. It's not something we can submit by mail — she'll need to ratify it in person at the courthouse — but we can do all the groundwork now." Patricia closes the laptop and scribbles something else in the notepad. "My recommendation is that we file the complaints jointly. It carries more weight and simplifies the investigation, but that's your call."

"We've already talked about it. We're doing it together," Leire says.

"Good." Patricia adds a line. "One more thing: at some point in this process, you'll both need to speak about your relationship — about the circumstances under which the recordings were made. Are you prepared for that?"

"Yes. That's not an issue," she answers without hesitation.

"Perfect. Then I'll get everything ready, and when Brogan is back, you contact me and we'll coordinate the filing. Any questions?"

Leire takes a few seconds to think, but the woman has explained everything clearly.

"No. All good."

Patricia stands and walks them to the door.

"We'll be in touch, Leire."

Five minutes later, Isaac and she step outside and stop on the sidewalk. Leire looks up at the sky and breathes in deeply as the late-afternoon sun warms her cheeks.

"You okay?" Isaac asks.

She nods, gives him a small smile, and they say goodbye when she turns down his offer to drive her home. She's decided she wants to walk and clear her head, and when she gets tired she'll grab a cab back.

She walks with her phone in her hand because yesterday, when she talked to Kate — as she does every afternoon — they'd agreed that the Australian would call as soon as she got out of physical therapy to hear how things went.

When her phone starts ringing, Leire is passing by a park and decides to sit on an empty bench to take the call.