Chapter 9
The next three days were a blur of activity.
Margaret filed everything she’d promised.
The divorce petition.
The restraining orders.
The account freezes.
The lis pendens on the house.
The DA’s office opened a criminal investigation.
Detectives came to Lisa’s house to interview us.
They took Ethan’s phone as evidence.
They took all the documents.
They took copies of everything.
And they told us the same thing Margaret had.
Daniel was going down.
Hard.
But Daniel wasn’t going down without a fight.
He hired his own lawyer.
A big shot from Houston who charged eight hundred dollars an hour and had a reputation for winning at all costs.
And he started filing motions of his own.
He claimed I’d stolen the documents from the office.
That I’d violated his privacy.
That Ethan’s recordings were illegal because they’d been made without consent.
That I was an unfit mother who had turned our son against him.
That I was mentally unstable and couldn’t be trusted with custody.
He asked the court for temporary full custody of Ethan.
For exclusive use of the house.
For me to be ordered to pay him alimony.
Every motion was more outrageous than the last.
But Margaret didn’t even blink.
“Standard deflection tactics,” she told us over the phone. “He’s throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. None of it will work. The judge will see right through it. Just stay calm. The hearing is next Friday. We’ll shut him down then.”
Next Friday.
Five days away.
Five days of waiting.
Five days of Daniel’s lawyer filing more nonsense.
Five days of anonymous texts and calls.
Hang-ups in the middle of the night.
Flowers delivered to Lisa’s gate with no card.
A car parked across the street from the community entrance for hours at a time.
The police increased their patrols.
But they couldn’t be there all the time.
The tension in Lisa’s house was thick enough to cut with a knife.
Ethan stopped sleeping through the night.
He started having nightmares.
I’d hear him screaming from the guest room.
I’d run in and hold him while he shook.
Max would whine and lick his hands.
Lisa installed more cameras.
She changed the gate code twice.
She kept her handgun loaded and in her nightstand.
“I’m a good shot,” she told me. “Ex-husband was a cop. Taught me everything I know. If Daniel steps one foot on this property, he’s leaving in a body bag.”
I believed her.
Thursday night—the night before the hearing—we were sitting in Lisa’s living room.
Margaret had just left after going over our testimony one last time.
Ethan was exhausted.
He’d fallen asleep on the couch, his head in my lap.
Max was asleep on his feet.
Lisa was pouring glasses of wine.
“Tomorrow’s the big day,” she said, handing me a glass. “By this time tomorrow, Daniel will have lost the first round. Big time.”
I swirled the wine in my glass.
“I just want it over. I want to go back to my house. I want Ethan to feel safe again. I want to stop looking over my shoulder every time I leave the house.”
“Almost there, Sarah. Almost.”
My phone buzzed on the coffee table.
Another unknown number.
I sighed and reached for it.
Probably another hang-up.
But it wasn’t a call.
It was a text.
With a video attached.
I opened it.
The video was taken from inside my house.
My living room.
Daniel was sitting on my couch.
Lila was next to him.
Her feet were propped up on my coffee table.
She was wearing my robe.
Daniel was holding a glass of my whiskey.
He looked directly into the camera.
“Hi, Sarah. Hi, Ethan. If you’re watching this, you’re probably wondering what we’re doing in your house. Well, the judge granted me temporary access today to get some of my things. Funny how that works, isn’t it? Your fancy lawyer isn’t as good as you thought she was.”
He took a sip of my whiskey.
“Anyway. I just wanted to say good luck tomorrow at the hearing. You’re going to need it. Because I’ve been doing some thinking. And I’ve decided I’m not going to lose. Not to you. Not to that lawyer. Not to anyone.”
He leaned closer to the camera.
His voice dropped to a whisper.
“You think you can take everything from me? My business? My money? My future? Fine. But if I’m going down, I’m taking something of yours first. Something you love more than anything in the world.”
He looked directly into the lens.
“See you in court, Sarah. Sleep tight.”
The video ended.
I stared at the phone.
My blood had turned to lead in my veins.
He was in my house.
Wearing my robe.
Drinking my whiskey.
Threatening my son.
Lisa grabbed the phone from my hand.
She watched the video.
Her face went from white to red to purple with rage.
“That son of a bitch,” she whispered. “That absolute son of a bitch.”
She called Margaret immediately.
Margaret answered on the first ring.
Lisa explained what had happened.
She sent her the video.
Margaret was quiet for a long time.
When she spoke, her voice was colder than I’d ever heard it.
“Get the police on the phone right now. That video violates the protective order. At least five different ways. He’ll be arrested tonight. I don’t care what time it is. I’m calling the judge myself. And tomorrow in court? This video is going to be the nail in his coffin. He just handed us the entire case on a silver platter.”
Lisa called 9-1-1.
I sat there on the couch, stroking Ethan’s hair while he slept.
He was so peaceful.
So innocent.
And Daniel had threatened him.
In my house.
Something inside me snapped.
The fear was gone.
All that was left was cold, hard rage.
The police were at Lisa’s gate in ten minutes.
They watched the video.
They took statements.
They put out an APB for Daniel’s arrest.
“His truck is registered at the house,” Officer Marquez said—she’d responded again. “We’ll send a unit over there now. If he’s still there, we’ll bring him in. If not, we’ll find him. He can’t run forever.”
She left.
The house was quiet again.
Ethan stirred on my lap.
He opened his eyes.
“Mom? Why are the police here? What happened?”
I looked at Lisa.
She nodded slightly.
Tell him.
He deserved to know.
I showed him the video.
He watched it in silence.
When it was over, he didn’t cry.
He didn’t get scared.
He just stood up.
He walked to the window and looked out at the dark.
“He’s really never going to stop, is he?” he said quietly.
“Not on his own,” I said. “But the police are going to arrest him tonight. And tomorrow in court, Margaret is going to make sure he never hurts us again.”
Ethan turned around.
His face was different.
Harder.
Older.
The boy who had worshipped his father was gone forever.
In his place was someone who understood exactly what Daniel was.
May you like
And what he was capable of.
“Okay,” Ethan said. “Then tomorrow we finish this. Once and for all.”
