Chapter 10 - THE PART THEY CUT OUT
I remembered the argument.
Six weeks earlier.
Adrian had found me looking through a stack of invoices.
He stood in the kitchen doorway, smiling.
“Looking for something?”
I told him I wanted a divorce.
He told me I wouldn’t survive one.
Then he said if I embarrassed him, he would make sure my father read stories about me for the rest of his life.
I had been shaking.
“If you come after my family, I’ll expose what you’ve done,” I told him. “I’ll destroy the lie you’ve built around yourself.”
The clip his attorney released contained five words.
“I’ll… destroy… you.”
Three separate pieces.
One ugly sentence.
By breakfast, it was everywhere.
Leah sat beside me while we watched the hearing on a secure video connection.
Adrian appeared in a jacket that didn’t fit properly over his detention clothes.
For a moment, I remembered straightening his tie before our first anniversary dinner.
My body reacted before my mind did.
A familiar urge to help.
Then he looked toward the camera.
And smiled.
His attorney described a troubled marriage, financial allegations, a wife with powerful family connections.
The prosecutor returned to the documented injuries, the responding officers’ observations, the recorded threats.
Nobody played the whole pendant recording in open court that morning.
I was grateful.
It wasn’t entertainment.
Conditions were imposed: no contact with me, no contact through others, restrictions intended to address the risk while proceedings continued.
When the connection ended, I realized I had been gripping Leah’s sleeve.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
“They’ll believe him.”
“Some people will.”
Her honesty hurt less than reassurance would have.
“What do we do?”
“We give investigators the original files. We let an examiner assess his clip. And we don’t let his press strategy become your life.”
My phone buzzed.
Rosa.
Mrs.—Evelyn. Please call me.
She answered on the first ring.
“A man came to my apartment.”
My stomach dropped.
“Who?”
“He said there was work for me. Good money.”
“What did he want?”
She was quiet.
“Rosa.”
“He wanted me to say you asked for that letter. The one in your suitcase.”
Leah reached for her phone.
“Are you safe right now?”
“Yes. My nephew is here.”
“Stay with him.”
After we hung up, I looked at the dark hearing screen.
Adrian had been ordered not to contact me.
He had simply found someone else to frighten.
May you like
Then another message arrived from Rosa.
I took a picture of his car.
