Chapter 9 - THE FILE ON ME
Police escorted Claire to Rachel’s office that afternoon.
She looked exhausted, with a bruise along her jaw and a bandage around one wrist.
I expected anger when I saw her.
Instead I felt tired.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“For which part?”
“All of it.”
Then she handed me a flash drive.
Michael had kept a folder on a private server labeled EVIDENCE.
Inside were photographs of me crying at Daniel’s funeral. Screenshots of texts I sent after my miscarriage. Prescription records from the short period when I took anxiety medication. Statements from Patricia describing me as “emotionally volatile.”
Ordinary grief had been edited into a case file.
“They were building a narrative,” Rachel said.
Claire opened another document.
A declaration from Michael claimed I had threatened self-harm.
I had never done that.
Another claimed I drank heavily.
I barely drank at all.
Then we found an audio file.
My own voice said, “Sometimes I don’t know if I can keep doing this.”
I remembered the conversation.
It had been after Daniel died.
The original sentence was: Sometimes I don’t know if I can keep doing this job while handling the estate.
Michael had cut the rest.
Claire looked sick.
“He made me organize these.”
“You knew?”
“I knew he was preparing for divorce. I didn’t know why until later.”
Rachel asked, “Who else had access?”
Claire named Linda, the office manager, and Patricia.
Then she hesitated.
“One more person.”
“Who?”
“Dr. Steven Cross.”
I knew that name.
He was Patricia’s psychiatrist.
And according to the folder, he had written an evaluation declaring me unfit.
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There was one problem.
I had never met him.
