The letter was formal and precise and designed to be frightening.
Aria read it twice at the kitchen table on a Thursday morning while Luca was getting ready for his walk with her. She read it the second time more slowly, extracting the actual legal content from the intimidation architecture around it.
Thomas Carver’s family had retained a New York firm — aggressive, well-resourced, the kind of firm that took cases specifically because the optics of pursuing them created pressure regardless of the legal merits. The suit alleged wrongful conduct in connection with Thomas’s removal from the organization. It named Luca as primary defendant.
It named Aria as a material witness.
She set the letter down. Picked up her coffee. Thought.
Luca came into the kitchen. Read her face. Sat down witho
