Chapter 7 - I LEFT ANYWAY
I should have been terrified.
I was.
But underneath the terror was something else.
Clarity.
“You’re threatening me.”
“No.”
Mark stood.
“I’m telling you what Mom thinks.”
“You just said if I leave, you’ll file for custody.”
“I said Mom wants to.”
“And you’re going with her.”
He didn’t answer.
I opened the door.
“Lena, please.”
I looked back at him.
“For the last month, every time I cried, you wrote it down. Every time I got scared, you called it instability. Every boundary I set with your mother became evidence against me.”
His face changed.
“I didn’t write everything.”
“Enough.”
“You went through my files?”
“Our shared drive.”
His jaw tightened.
That small reaction told me he was angrier about being caught than ashamed of what he had done.
I almost smiled.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For making this easier.”
I left.
Rachel was waiting in her driveway when I arrived.
She didn’t ask questions.
She just hugged me.
And I finally cried.
Not pretty crying.
Not movie crying.
I sobbed until my chest hurt.
“I married him,” I gasped.
“I know.”
“I trusted him.”
“I know.”
“He wants to take her.”
Rachel held my face.
“Then we make sure he doesn’t.”
The next morning, Melissa filed for legal separation.
Not divorce yet.
I couldn’t say the word.
She also sent a preservation notice regarding electronic records and informed Mark’s attorney that any attempt to rely on altered medical documents would be challenged.
By noon, Mark called fourteen times.
I didn’t answer.
At 2:00 p.m., Diane called.
I answered that one.
“Where are you?” she demanded.
“Safe.”
“You need to come home.”
“No.”
“You’re proving everything we’ve said.”
I almost laughed.
“By staying with a friend?”
“By abandoning your husband.”
“I didn’t abandon anyone.”
“You ran away in an unstable state.”
“My attorney disagrees.”
Silence.
Sweet, beautiful silence.
“Your what?”
“My attorney.”
Diane’s voice dropped.
“You got a lawyer?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Before your custody meeting.”
Another silence.
This one tasted like victory.
“You’ve been spying on us.”
“No. I found documents I legally had access to.”
“You manipulative little—”
I ended the call.
My hands were shaking.
But I was smiling.
For the first time in weeks, I had taken control of a conversation.
Then Melissa called.
“I need you to sit down.”
My smile disappeared.
“What happened?”
“They filed.”
My heart sank.
“Already?”
“Emergency petition requesting temporary custody immediately after birth.”
I closed my eyes.
“On what grounds?”
She exhaled.
“They included affidavits.”
“From who?”
“Diane.”
“Of course.”
“Mark.”
I swallowed.
“And?”
“Three other people.”
My eyes opened.
“Three?”
“A coworker of Mark’s. Diane’s cousin. And someone named Natalie Brooks.”
I frowned.
“I don’t know Natalie Brooks.”
Melissa paused.
“She claims she knows you.”
“How?”
“She says she saw you drinking while pregnant.”
My mouth fell open.
“That’s a lie.”
“I know what you told me.”
“It didn’t happen.”
“She included a photograph.”
The old Christmas picture.
My stomach twisted.
“They changed the date.”
“We’ll challenge it.”
“How do we prove it?”
“Original metadata, witnesses, source files.”
I pressed my fingers to my temple.
“What else?”
Melissa hesitated.
“What?”
“There’s a claim that you threatened to leave the state with the baby.”
“I never said that.”
“I figured.”
“Who said I did?”
“Your husband.”
That one knocked the air out of me.
Then Melissa added, “And there’s one more thing.”
“What?”
“They attached an audio recording.”
My chest tightened.
“Of what?”
“You crying and saying, ‘Sometimes I wish this baby would just disappear.’”
I stood so quickly the room spun.
“I never said that.”
“The voice sounds like you.”
“It’s not me.”
“Lena.”
“It’s not me!”
Rachel came running from the kitchen.
I gripped the phone.
“I never said that.”
Melissa’s voice was calm.
“Then we prove you didn’t.”
But when she emailed me the audio file, I listened.
May you like
And my blood ran cold.
Because the voice absolutely sounded like mine.
