Chapter 9 - THE BREAK-IN
I called 911 from the hallway and did not enter again until police cleared the apartment.
Rachel kept Lily downstairs with a neighbor.
The officer asked whether anyone knew where I was staying.
"Jason," I said. "Maybe Brooke."
Naomi arrived before midnight.
"Tell me you backed everything up."
"Three places."
"Good. Then they stole paper."
"They wanted me scared."
"Yes."
The building camera showed a man in a maintenance jacket entering with a copied keycard at 7:43 p.m.
He kept his face down.
But the parking garage caught his car.
A black Lexus registered to North Lake Family Services.
Brooke's shell company.
The police found the Lexus outside a storage facility near Cicero the next morning.
Inside Unit 214 were boxes labeled with my name.
Old mail.
Medical bills.
Printed social-media posts.
Copies of my college counseling records.
A list of my medications from years earlier.
And a binder titled CUSTODY NARRATIVE.
Page one read:
Emily Bennett presents with escalating emotional instability following childbirth.
Page six listed witnesses.
Diane.
Brooke.
Jason.
Two cousins.
A neighbor I barely knew.
Even Jason's pastor.
Each had a prepared statement.
Some were already signed.
On the last page was a timeline.
At the bottom, in red ink:
TARGET DATE: DIANE'S BIRTHDAY.
The slap wasn't an accident.
It was supposed to make me explode.
And I had.
But whoever planned the trap had made one mistake.
May you like
They had planned for me to lose control.
They had not planned for Brooke's livestream to keep recording.
