Chapter 3
Detective Ellis photographed my neck.
The bruises were dark fingerprints.
Marcus’s fingerprints.
The doctor who examined me went pale when he saw the marks.
“These are consistent with strangulation,” he said.
Marcus exploded.
“She’s exaggerating!”
Lily startled and began to cry.
I pulled her close.
Dad turned his head once.
Marcus went quiet.
Judge Reed stepped toward my bed.
“Emily, do you confirm you requested emergency protection?”
“Yes.”
“Do you fear your husband?”
I looked at Marcus.
He glared back.
Then I looked at Lily.
“Yes.”
Marcus laughed bitterly.
“She’s lying because she wants control.”
Detective Ellis held up a tablet.
“We already reviewed part of the footage from the stuffed toy.”
His mouth shut.
Harrison lowered himself into a chair.
He looked ten years older.
Judge Reed studied him.
“You knew better than to let your son become this.”
Harrison’s face twitched.
“You have no right.”
“I have every right.”
Dad stood beside me.
“Caroline was there the night your family tried to bury a woman’s testimony.”
The room went cold.
Marcus looked between them.
“What woman?”
Harrison whispered, “Enough.”
Dad’s voice hardened.
“Her name was Rebecca Lane.”
My mother’s name.
My blood froze.
I looked at Dad.
“What?”
He closed his eyes.
For one second, he was not the steady man who raised me.
He was a widower carrying a wound he had hidden for twenty-eight years.
“Your mother didn’t just die in an accident,” he said.
Harrison stood too fast.
“Don’t.”
Judge Reed turned to Detective Ellis.
“Record this.”
The detective nodded.
Dad looked at me.
“I wanted to tell you when you were older. Then I wanted to let you live without it.”
Tears blurred my vision.
“Dad.”
He pointed at Harrison.
“The Vance family silenced your mother before she could testify against them.”
May you like
Marcus whispered, “That’s not true.”
Harrison did not deny it.
