Chapter 6 - DAVID’S PERFECT LIE
David’s performance was polished.
He spoke about privacy.
Compassion.
Mental health.
He claimed he had begged me to accept treatment.
He said my pregnancy had made me unpredictable.
Sylvia stood beside him wearing a neck brace.
She had not been injured when the police arrived.
Now she looked like a victim.
David displayed a photograph of a bruise on her wrist.
He claimed I caused it.
The photograph had no date.
No context.
But television stations repeated it immediately.
The headline appeared beneath his face.
PROMINENT ATTORNEY’S CHRISTMAS FAMILY CRISIS.
My identity as the Chief Justice’s daughter had not yet been confirmed publicly.
David believed that gave him time to control the story.
He was wrong.
Rachel Monroe contacted Agent Reed shortly after the press conference.
She had recorded part of the Christmas dinner on her phone.
Not because she expected violence.
She had been filming Sylvia’s decorated table for social media.
The video captured Sylvia ordering me to eat in the kitchen.
It captured David telling me not to ruin Christmas.
Then Rachel accidentally lowered the phone.
The camera faced the tablecloth.
But the audio continued.
My voice begging for a chair.
Sylvia calling me lazy.
The sound of my body striking the counter.
My request for an ambulance.
David saying there would be no police cars in his driveway.
Agent Reed played the recording in my hospital room.
I listened with my eyes closed.
Hearing it was different from remembering it.
The woman on the recording sounded exhausted.
Small.
Afraid to ask for anything.
My father stopped the audio.
“That is enough.”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“Play the rest.”
The recording captured David threatening to call me unstable.
It captured him bragging about knowing the sheriff.
It captured the moment he dialed my father.
Most importantly, it captured Sylvia speaking after the ambulance arrived.
“We should have had Keene sign the papers before Christmas.”
The room fell silent.
Dr. Keene’s false psychiatric reports were not David’s work alone.
Sylvia was involved.
Rachel’s video also showed four guests who later claimed they saw nothing.
One of them was the county sheriff.
He had been seated at the far end of the table.
David had not exaggerated about playing golf with him.
Sheriff Thomas Keller witnessed everything.
He never called for help.
He left the house before the first officers entered.
Agent Reed folded his arms.
“We now have a larger problem.”
My father looked at him.
“Keller contacted the responding officers.”
“He instructed them not to arrest David unless Anna suffered a confirmed medical emergency.”
I stared at the fetal monitor.
My baby had nearly died.
Yet Keller had still tried to protect David.
My father turned off the television.
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“Then this is no longer only a family case.”
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