Chapter 6
Sarah wrote back two hours later.
*Call me. 404-555-0199. Now.*
I dialed the number, my heart hammering.
She picked up on the first ring.
“Clara?”
Her voice was tight, like she was holding back tears.
“Yes. Sarah, I—”
“Did he really do it again?” she said. “The custody thing? The lies? The mother helping him?”
“All of it. He told me he’d never been married before. I had no idea about you. About Lila.”
Sarah let out a bitter laugh.
“Of course he didn’t. He never tells anyone about me. About what he did.”
She told me everything.
She’d met Ryan when they were both twenty-two, working at a grocery store in Raleigh. He’d been charming, sweet, told her she was the only girl for him. They’d gotten married six months later. Lila was born a year after that.
Then the mask slipped.
He started getting angry. Small things at first—forgotten dinners, messy floors. Then the yelling. Then the shoving. Then the slaps.
When she tried to leave, he did exactly what he was doing to me.
He filed for emergency custody.
He claimed she was unstable.
He had Linda lie and say Sarah had hit her.
He planted a bottle of pills in her bathroom.
He used his connections as a new deputy to get the judge on his side.
The court gave Ryan full custody.
Sarah was only allowed supervised visits, once a month, at a center downtown.
Then, six months later, Ryan moved to Charlotte without telling her. He changed his phone number. He blocked her on everything.
She hadn’t seen Lila in seven years.
“I hired lawyers,” Sarah said, her voice breaking. “I spent every dollar I had. But no one would believe me. He was a cop. He was a hero. I was just the crazy ex-wife.”
I cried for her.
I cried for me.
I cried for both our children, trapped in Ryan’s web.
“Sarah,” I said, when I could speak again. “I have proof. I have a burner phone with messages between him and Linda, planning all of this. I have a lawyer. We have a hearing next week. Will you come testify? Tell the judge what he did to you? What he’s capable of?”
There was a long silence.
Then Sarah said, “I’m scared. The last time I tried to fight him, he told me he’d kill me and make it look like a suicide. I believed him.”
“I know. I’m scared too. But if we don’t stop him now, he’ll do this to someone else. And Noah… I’ll lose my son forever. Just like you lost Lila.”
Another silence.
Then:
“Send me the address of the courthouse. I’ll be there.”
I hung up, and for the first time in days, I felt a flicker of hope.
We weren’t just fighting for Noah anymore.
We were fighting for Lila too.
That afternoon, Jake called.
“I got the records,” he said. “Ryan accessed your driver’s license info, your address history, your phone records, even Noah’s school files, forty-seven times in the past three months. All on police computers. That’s a felony, Clara. Misuse of law enforcement databases. He could lose his job. He could go to jail.”
I could barely breathe.
“Jake, you’re a lifesaver.”
“Also, I talked to my IT friend. He said if we can get the serial number of your kitchen camera, we can contact the security company. They keep cloud backups for six months. Even if Ryan deleted the footage from the device, it’s still on their servers.”
I called the security company, my hands shaking.
I gave them our address, our account number.
The woman on the phone typed for a minute.
“Yes, Ms. Hale. We have footage from every day for the past six months. I can send you a download link to your email. It’ll be there in ten minutes.”
I hung up, screaming with joy.
Mia ran into the room.
“What? What happened?”
“We have the footage! The whole fight! Linda slapping me first! Ryan slapping me! Everything!”
Ten minutes later, the email came.
I clicked the link, downloaded the file, and pressed play.
There we were.
Linda walking in.
Grabbing Noah.
Slapping me.
Fighting with me.
Ryan walking in.
Linda faking tears.
Ryan slapping me so hard I fell into the counter.
Linda smiling behind his back.
Then, after Noah and I ran out, the footage kept rolling.
Ryan and Linda standing in the kitchen, talking.
Linda said, “That went perfectly. She fell for it.”
Ryan said, “Good. Now we get the custody papers filed tonight. By tomorrow, she’ll be out of our lives for good.”
Linda said, “And Noah? He’ll forget all about her. He’ll be my boy now.”
Ryan laughed.
“Damn right. She never deserved either of us.”
I paused the video.
I looked at Mia.
“We’ve got him,” I said.
That night, I packed a bag.
Mia was going to stay with Noah.
I was driving to Atlanta to pick up Sarah.
We were going to drive back together, two women who’d been destroyed by the same man, ready to take him down once and for all.
Mia hugged me before I left.
“Be careful. If Ryan finds out you’re going to get Sarah, he’ll stop at nothing.”
“I know. But I have to do this. For Noah. For Lila.”
I got in my car and started driving south, the Atlanta skyline glowing in the distance.
I didn’t know it then, but Ryan was already one step ahead of me.
May you like
He’d put a tracker on my car.
He knew exactly where I was going.
