Chapter 9 - The Notary’s Stamp
Three days later, the sun finally broke through the gray winter clouds over Chicago, casting a brilliant, blinding glare across the snow-covered rooftops of the Loop.
Inside the quiet, sunlit conference room on the sixth floor of the Southern Harbor building, the atmosphere felt entirely different from the cold corridors of Halloway and Straoud.
Sloan Whitaker sat at a polished oak table drinking a cup of hot chamomile tea. Her wrists still bore faint purple bruises beneath the long sleeves of her sweater, but the color had returned to her cheeks. Across from her sat the chief pediatric cardiologist from Mercy Northside Hospital, alongside a federal prosecutor who was currently packing a leather portfolio with signed affidavits.
The door opened, and Cormack Vale walked in, carrying a manila folder.
He set the folder down in front of Sloan. She opened it with cautious fingers. Inside was a formal, irrevocable grant from the newly restructured Riverline Foundation, completely endowing the pediatric cardiology wing at Mercy Northside in perpetuity—with a special administrative oversight clause guaranteeing her brother Toby’s medical care, housing, and education for the rest of his minority.
"The federal investigators are currently dismantling Marsh's entire holding portfolio," Cormack explained quietly, sitting down at the opposite end of the table. "Preston Halloway resigned from his firm this morning after federal agents served a search warrant on his office. Halloway and Straoud is currently being dissolved under RICO provisions for conspiracy and obstruction."
Sloan stared down at the papers, her lower lip trembling slightly. She reached out and touched the corner of the document, where a small, official stamp had been embossed into the heavy paper stock using a brass press.
Her own notary seal.
"I didn't sign these," Sloan whispered, looking up at him with wide, astonished eyes.
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"No," Cormack said, a faint, rare ghost of a smile touching the corner of his mouth. "You didn't. But legally, your commission authorizes you to witness and certify the transfer of corrupt assets back to the city. I thought it only fitting that you be the one to notarize the end of their empire."
Sloan looked down at the brass embosser sitting beside her teacup. For six years, she had believed that stamp was nothing more than a cheap administrative tool used to save a law firm a few dollars on outside fees. Now, looking at the crisp, raised impression of the eagle and the seal stamped into the paper, she realized it was the heaviest thing in the room.
