Chapter 10 - THE DEAL DAVID OFFERED
David requested a private settlement meeting.
Naomi advised me to reject it.
I agreed to listen only because the meeting would be recorded.
David entered the conference room wearing a gray suit.
He looked thinner.
His law license had been temporarily suspended.
His firm had removed his name from its website.
Sheriff Keller had resigned.
Dr. Keene was cooperating with federal prosecutors.
David’s world was collapsing.
Yet he sat across from me as though he still had something to offer.
“I’m prepared to apologize publicly.”
“For which part?”
“The misunderstanding at Christmas.”
“It wasn’t a misunderstanding.”
He inhaled slowly.
“I’m willing to let you keep primary custody.”
“You do not get to give me my own child.”
His jaw tightened.
Naomi placed a hand near my file, reminding me not to react.
David continued.
“You can keep the house.”
“The accounts.”
“The car.”
“In exchange for what?”
“You withdraw the assault complaint.”
“You state that my mother did not intentionally push you.”
“And you tell investigators Keene’s reports were based on information you gave me.”
I stared at him.
“You still think this is negotiation.”
“I’m trying to save both of us.”
“You are trying to save your career.”
“Our child will need financial security.”
“My father has money.”
The words slipped out before I could stop them.
David smiled faintly.
“There she is.”
“The Chief Justice’s daughter.”
“You hid him because you wanted to pretend you were independent.”
I stood.
He leaned forward.
“You think your father makes you untouchable?”
“No.”
“But the evidence makes you accountable.”
His expression changed.
Then he said the one thing that exposed his real fear.
“If Keene talks, people will misunderstand my work.”
Naomi looked at him.
“What work?”
David realized too late that he had spoken carelessly.
I sat again.
“What did you and Keene do?”
He said nothing.
Naomi ended the meeting.
Before leaving, David placed an envelope on the table.
Inside was a sonogram photograph.
My sonogram photograph.
It had been taken from my private hospital file.
Someone inside the hospital had given it to him.
On the back, David had written:
SHE BELONGS WITH HER FATHER.
He knew the baby was a girl.
He had lied in the custody documents because a son would appear more important to Sylvia.
David was still shaping reality around whatever story benefited him.
Agent Reed investigated the hospital breach.
The employee who accessed my file was Sylvia’s niece, a records supervisor named Caroline.
She admitted receiving ten thousand dollars from David.
But she revealed something worse.
David had asked her to alter my blood test results after the Christmas injury.
May you like
He wanted the records to show alcohol in my system.
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