Victoria Kane sat propped against white hospital pillows, her silver hair swept back from her face in a neat chignon. Even in a hospital gown, connected to monitors that beeped rhythmically in the background, she maintained an air of command. The room, the hospital's finest private suite, had been transformed with fresh flowers, silk sheets from her home, and a mahogany lap desk now balanced across her knees.

Her lawyer, Frederick Winters, a man who had served the ...