Chapter 12 - The Car Outside
Security recorded the license plate.
The car belonged to a private investigator.
David had hired him three days earlier.
The investigator claimed David asked him only to document where I went.
Rachel was furious.
Detective Ruiz was more interested in who paid him.
The money came from a business account belonging to Sylvia.
That morning, Dad asked whether I wanted to leave the house.
“No.”
“You could stay somewhere private.”
“I’m tired of being moved because David wants me afraid.”
Dad studied me.
Then nodded.
“Your decision.”
That mattered.
Everyone in David’s world had always made choices for me.
My father asked.
There was a difference.
By afternoon, authorities located David at an airport hotel two states away.
He had not left the country.
His lawyer claimed he had traveled to “clear his head.”
Investigators were unconvinced.
Especially after discovering a one-way flight reservation to the Cayman Islands that had been canceled four hours before departure.
David returned voluntarily the next day.
He walked through a crowd of reporters carrying a leather briefcase and wearing the same expression he used entering court.
Controlled.
Superior.
Untouchable.
He surrendered his passport.
Then he accused me again.
“This is revenge.”
I watched the clip from Dad’s study.
I felt no anger.
Only distance.
David looked smaller on television.
Not because he had changed.
Because I had.
Two months passed.
My pregnancy progressed.
The baby remained healthy.
I returned to working remotely for the nonprofit legal clinic I had quietly joined before marrying David.
Rachel handled the divorce.
Detective Ruiz handled the criminal case.
My father handled tea.
Every evening at eight, he brought a cup upstairs.
No legal strategy.
No questions.
Just tea.
Then, one night, Rachel arrived without calling.
She carried a folder.
“We have a problem.”
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
“Sylvia wants immunity.”
“For what?”
Rachel looked toward Dad.
Then back at me.
“She says David asked her to provoke you on Christmas.”
I stared at her.
“She says the push wasn’t planned.”
“But the humiliation was.”
Rachel nodded.
“And she claims she has proof.”
Sylvia had spent her whole life protecting David.
May you like
Now she was offering him to prosecutors.
The question was why.
