Chapter 2 - THE FAMILY VERSION
Two Napa County deputies entered through the front doors just as Adrian lunged across the dining room.
Maya shoved a chair into his path.
He struck it with his knee and nearly fell.
“Hands where I can see them!” one deputy shouted.
The room finally came alive.
Relatives spoke over one another.
Victoria cried.
Charles demanded to call the family attorney.
Adrian lifted both hands and changed his entire face.
“Officers, this is a misunderstanding.”
Deputy Lena Ortiz looked at the blood on my blouse, then at the broken porcelain scattered across the floor.
“A misunderstanding did that?”
“She threw something first,” Adrian said.
I stared at him.
He did not blink.
Then one cousin nodded.
Another said, “There was an argument.”
A third added, “Valerie was acting unstable.”
Twenty witnesses had become twenty actors.
Deputy Ortiz separated us and asked me what happened.
I told her every word.
The condo.
The monthly payment.
The demand.
The plate.
When she asked whether anyone had recorded it, Charles answered before I could.
“There are no cameras in the dining room.”
His response was too quick.
I looked toward the tiny security camera above the doorway.
The red light was gone.
A minute earlier it had been blinking.
Now it was dark.
“Someone just turned off that camera,” I said.
Charles smiled without warmth.
“It hasn't worked in months.”
Deputy Ortiz took photographs and called paramedics.
As they cleaned the cut near my temple, Adrian stood at the far end of the room, watching my right hand.
The hand holding the flash drive inside my closed fist.
Maya had gone pale.
Her husband, Owen, gripped her arm.
“What did you give her?” he whispered.
“Nothing.”
“You're lying.”
When he tightened his fingers, I stepped forward.
“Let go of her.”
Owen released Maya only because two deputies turned toward him.
Then Charles's attorney arrived.
Graham Pike entered the estate as if he owned the building and the people inside it.
He wore a dark suit, no tie, and the calm expression of a man who had cleaned up family disasters before.
He looked at Adrian, then at me.
“Mrs. Caldwell, this can still be handled privately.”
“I don't want it handled privately.”
“You're injured and emotional.”
“I am injured because your client hit me.”
Pike lowered his voice.
“Be very careful what story you tell tonight.”
Deputy Ortiz heard him.
“Are you threatening a witness, counselor?”
Pike smiled.
“Of course not.”
Adrian was handcuffed.
Victoria screamed as if I were the one being arrested.
“You're destroying your marriage over one mistake!”
I looked at Adrian.
“No. He destroyed it when he decided I was property.”
As the deputies led him away, Charles moved close enough for only me to hear.
“Whatever Maya handed you belongs to us.”
I met his eyes.
“Then I guess you should have protected it better.”
His smile disappeared.
May you like
Before I reached the ambulance, my phone buzzed with a text from an unknown number.
RETURN THE DRIVE OR MAYA'S CHILDREN PAY FOR IT.
