Chapter 15 - THE VIDEO ON HIS PHONE
Detective Bell obtained a warrant for Ryan's phone two days later.
By then, Diane had been released pending her first court appearance under conditions that prohibited her from contacting me.
She violated that condition within six hours by calling from a neighbor's phone.
I didn't answer.
Ryan stayed silent publicly.
Privately, he hired a lawyer and began telling mutual friends that I was trying to "criminalize a family argument" because I wanted an advantage in divorce.
Then detectives recovered the video from his phone.
Ryan had started recording before Diane picked up the broom handle.
His camera was aimed at me.
Not at her.
He wanted my reaction.
The audio made it worse.
Diane said, "You think you're better than us because you make more money?"
I answered, "I never said that."
She stepped closer.
Ryan said quietly from behind the phone, "Just leave, Claire."
I replied, "Why would I leave my own house?"
Then Diane grabbed the handle.
Ryan did not say stop.
He kept recording.
After I caught it and shoved her away, Ryan's phone jerked downward because he rushed forward to grab me.
His own video recorded him saying, "Now look what you did."
Now.
As if he had been waiting for that exact moment.
Detective Bell asked whether I wanted to pursue every available charge.
I knew what he really meant.
Would I soften because Ryan had once been my husband?
I thought about our good years. They had been real. But real memories did not erase what he had done.
"Yes," I said.
"I want the truth handled like the truth."
Bell nodded.
Then he slid another document across the table.
"There's something else."
It was an email Ryan had sent to a divorce attorney three weeks before the attack.
May you like
The subject line was simple.
HOW TO ESTABLISH MARITAL ABANDONMENT.
