Chapter 17 - The Whole Morning
I watched the footage with Sofia in a quiet room at her office. It began with an ordinary breakfast: a banana on the counter, rain against the window, Ryan scrolling through his phone.
In the recording, I told him I had found reports carrying my seal.
"I need you to explain these," I said on-screen.
Ryan didn't ask to see them. He said, "Mom has the paperwork."
Five minutes later, Diane entered carrying a folder and the metal broom handle. At first she leaned it against the wall like a walking stick. She ordered me to sign a statement that the inspections had been performed under my supervision.
"They weren't," I told her. "Somebody could get hurt."
Diane laughed. "Nobody has gotten hurt."
"That's not the standard."
Ryan stepped under the camera. He glanced up and pulled Diane toward the pantry. His whisper came through the recording more clearly than I remembered hearing it in real life.
"Push her till she loses it," he said. "Then she'll have to take the deal."
Diane returned, shoved the folder into my chest, and swung the handle. The first blow hit my shoulder. A second later came Ryan's awful instruction: "Mom, not her face."
I watched myself catch the next swing. I watched Diane fall against the chair. I watched Ryan seize my bruised arm and demand an apology. When my hand struck his cheek, I finally looked away.
"I hate that part," I said.
Sofia stopped the video. "You can regret a reaction and still tell the truth about what led to it. The court will consider the evidence."
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For the first time, I heard everything that happened before the attack. I'd spent months wondering whether some sentence of mine had provoked it. The recording showed two adults planning how to make me afraid, then acting on the plan.
The next morning, prosecutors told Sofia they had obtained Ryan's testimony under his cooperation agreement. He would have to answer, in open court, why he hadn't stopped Diane.
