Chapter 14 - Nicole's Price
Nicole agreed to meet Detective Chen with an attorney present.
I wasn't invited, and that was a relief.
I didn't want to sit across a table from someone who had laughed while I was hurt.
I wanted the truth, but I no longer believed forgiveness was the price of receiving it.
Nicole claimed that Richard controlled the family company's accounts and had asked her to document my supposed instability for months.
She said the kitchen video was part of that effort, though she insisted she had not expected Trent to use the stick.
The recording contradicted her innocence, and Chen did not let her forget it.
Nicole also said the phrase “transfer complete” referred to a planned movement of money after an insurance and property transaction, not to anything involving custody of the baby.
Her explanation was plausible enough to investigate, but far from settled.
She had come forward, she admitted, because Richard blamed her for the video and threatened to cut her out of the family trust.
I wasn't surprised that her conscience had a price.
Hannah reminded me that motives did not automatically erase useful evidence.
Nicole handed over cloud backups of messages and documents.
Some had been preserved before she deleted the local files.
Among them were audio clips of Richard discussing how to make me appear unable to manage money.
There was no dramatic confession to attempted murder.
There was something almost worse in its ordinariness: a family calmly planning to strip a woman of her credibility.
That evening I sat alone with my notebook.
I wrote, “Their lies are not my identity.” The sentence looked awkward and sentimental.
I left it there anyway.
A prenatal appointment showed my daughter growing, although the doctor still wanted close monitoring.
I decided her name would be Grace.
Not because everything was suddenly peaceful, but because I wanted a word in her life that had never belonged to Trent's family.
Two days later, prosecutors announced new financial charges connected to suspected forged records.
The assault investigation continued separately.
Then Richard's attorney submitted a startling claim in court: the company funds had been moved at my request.
Attached was a document with a signature that looked almost exactly like mine.
Under the signature was the name of the witness.
Alex Morgan.
May you like
My own brother.
