🔥 **MY FATHER-IN-LAW ORDERED MY HUSBAND TO BEAT ME WITH A BELT IN FRONT OF 20 RELATIVES—BUT WHEN I CAUGHT HIS WRIST, THE ENTIRE ROOM FROZE… THEN I DISCOVERED THE HIDDEN CAMERA AND THE TERRIFYING PLAN TO DESTROY MY LIFE! 😱💔**

David agreed to meet in the public courtyard outside Priya's office. This time he brought his own documents. He looked frightened of them.

“Dad hired someone to look into you,” he admitted. “Last spring, after we got engaged.”

“Why?”

“He said you were digging through the foundation. He thought you wanted money.”

“And you believed him?”

“I wanted to believe you wouldn't hurt the family. I also wanted Dad to stop yelling at me.”

I almost laughed. “You could've asked me.”

“I should have.”

He opened a folder containing an email he had received Saturday night. Robert had asked him to bring Mara to Sunday dinner and “make sure the camera sees the reaction.”

“You knew,” I said.

“I knew about the camera. I didn't know he'd bring out a belt.”

“But when he did, you swung it.”

David's eyes filled. “Yes.”

“Say the whole sentence.”

He struggled to meet my gaze. “I chose to swing a belt at my wife. My dad told me to, and I did it.”

That was better than an excuse. It still wasn't enough.

“I've arranged to stay with a friend,” I told him. “Don't come there.”

“What about us?”

“I don't know if there is an us.”

He nodded, accepting the answer without trying to bargain. Then he handed me the email printout and said, “My account was used to download those addresses. I gave Dad the password because he said my mother could face fraud charges if a loan fell apart. I don't know whether he used it on Saturday, but I made it possible.”

“Tell the investigators. Not just me.”