But before he was taken away, Agent Olivia Parker watched carefully from the back of the courtroom.
She was not there as a family member.
She was not there as a reporter.
She was there because she knew something nobody else knew.
The sentence was not the end of the story.
It was the beginning.
Because fifteen years in prison had just been handed down by a judge who had no idea that his own secret was already being recorded.
Chapter 2 — The Case Everyone Thought Was Finished
After Marcus was taken away, most people believed the case was over.
The headlines appeared quickly.
The public moved on.
Another conviction.
Another sentence.
Another courtroom decision.
But inside the FBI investigation office, the situation was far from finished.
Agent Olivia Parker reviewed the case files again.
She was not convinced.
Not because she knew Marcus.
She had never met him before.
But because patterns mattered.
And something about the case did not make sense.
Olivia examined the timeline.
The evidence submissions.
The judge's decisions.
The conversations surrounding the trial.
She noticed something unusual.
Several cases involving certain defendants had received unusually harsh outcomes.
Especially cases connected to people without powerful legal representation.
Olivia had seen this before.
A person with influence could change how the system worked.
That was why corruption investigations were difficult.
Because the people involved often appeared legitimate.
They wore suits.
They held important positions.
They spoke about justice.
But behind closed doors, their decisions could be influenced by something else.
Money.
Power.