Page 32 of Hidden Rocco
Her heart whispered to help. Maybe she was wrong and it would be intrusive but she ached to dosomething. “Julie, legal wants to talk to me?”
Julie sounded like she was typing, as always, and said, “Yes. Let me connect you to Steve Cardona, your senior lawyer on this case, but first I want to say I’m sorry for what I said earlier about Rocco. I read his file and his life sounds… sad. I should only speak after knowing facts.”
Mica’s heart constricted. Her knees pressed together under her desk and turned the computer on to read the report. “You didn’t say anything bad. Not really. I’m downloading what you sent now. Let me talk to legal.”
“Of course.” Julie clicked a button and for a second silence echoed back to her.
Mica read everything fast in the one-page report and then twenty-five pages of fact-finding documentation.
Her attorneys had concluded that the trial had serious issues in the records. A click sounded, then a male voice. “Ms. Murphy?”
Right. Mica was the billionaire business woman who ran a hotel empire, not a woman of leisure who did whatever she wanted. Her gaze went to Rocco, sweeping the front steps. Most of the snow had melted from the path but a blizzard was predicted for tomorrow.
Her instincts were right.
The brown-haired man had worry lines she could erase. She asked her lawyer, “This is Cardona, who wrote the report on Rocco Hellsworth?”
Steve Cardona’s brief meant she wasn’t completely crazy. He said, “Yes, ma’am. Now we need to know what you want us to do.”
Fix it. Free Rocco. Mica sucked in her breath and asked, “If I wanted to help, what couldyoudo?”
“He’s an escaped prisoner on the run right now. That’s not helping his case.”
“Can he be cleared without having to go back to prison?”
“You must be personally invested in this…if he were to be found with you, you could be indicted for aiding and abetting a criminal.”
Good thing no one but Julie knew her whereabout at work. “That won’t happen as you’re my lawyer. Now, what can you do?”
“We’ll file an appeal, get an injunction, and I’d get the case thrown out pretty easily,” her lawyer said. “There’s enough evidence in the trial transcripts to get this entire thing declared a mistrial, and with his brothers dead they’d have a hard time bringing more charges. His attorney in this seems almost complicit with sending him to prison.”
Too much legalese for her. The tree swayed from a breeze and standing beneath it was a good man. She stood, pressed her head to the glass plane and said, “Do it.”
Her lawyer asked, “What, ma’am? We need precise instructions.”
If he asked for a repeat of what he'd said, she couldn’t pull it off. Her voice caught in her throat but she spoke with command, “Clear… clear Rocco Hellsworth’s name. Ensure he’s a free man as fast as possible.”
Cardona immediately asked, “Will you want us to file a wrongful imprisonment case as well for civil restitution? I can also gather information on his lawyer’s malfeasance for the bar.”
Money wasn’t an issue for her, but he could use some for his mother. Anything she could do, she’d try. “Yes. I want to help Rocco and I need you to do everything in your power to right this wrong.”
“I’m on it, Ms. Murphy,” Cardona answered, then hung up. Mica closed her computer.
She’d been gone a while, settling Jacob. Hopefully she could talk Rocco into coming back inside now.
Soon she’d show Rocco this file and tell him what she’d done. First she needed to admit who she was and how she had this power.
Her son called out to her so she rushed back to the bedroom and picked him up.
Jacob’s skin was soft and warm. She hugged her boy and said, “Jacob, sometimes it’s important to help people just out of the kindness of your heart. I want you to learn that it’s good to wield your power for others and not just the family bank account.”
Her son just clutched her shirt in his tiny fist.
He was so sweet that she crooned to him as they made their way downstairs.
The kitchen smelled like the stew her parents’ French chef made for her as a girl.
Tonight’s beef stew must be done, or at least her stomach said it should be. She bounced her baby in her arms and headed outside.
