Chương 5
“That’s not what I asked.”
I sat down.
For the first time that night, exhaustion reached me.
“You want honesty?”
“Yes.”
“Sometimes people who follow the rules survive because they understand when rules are being used against them.”
She absorbed that.
Then she sat beside me.
“I don’t know who I am anymore.”
The sentence was barely audible.
I looked at her.
“What do you mean?”
“I spent two years becoming whatever Dominic wanted.”
Her hands rested on her stomach.
“I stopped seeing my friends because he didn’t like them.”
“I stopped working because he said I didn’t need to.”
“I stopped arguing because every argument became my fault.”
She swallowed.
“And now I’m sitting in a motel room with my mother because I finally admitted something was wrong.”
I moved closer.
“Clara.”
“I should have left sooner.”
“Maybe.”
She looked surprised.
I continued before she could misunderstand.
“Maybe you should have.”
“But staying does not make what happened to you acceptable.”
She looked down.
“I hate that I still miss him.”
I did not answer immediately.
People always want simple emotions.
Victim.
Villain.
Good.
Bad.
Real life rarely works that cleanly.
“You can miss someone and still know they are dangerous.”
She wiped her face.
“That feels impossible.”
“It isn’t.”
A knock came at the door.
Both of us froze.
Not a dramatic freeze.
A human one.
The kind where the body reacts before the mind catches up.
I stood slowly.
“Who is it?”
No answer.
I looked at Clara.
She backed away.
My hand moved toward the phone on the table.
Then the knock came again.
Three slow taps.
Not a stranger’s impatient knock.
A deliberate one.
“Victoria.”
The voice stopped me.
Because I knew it.
I opened the door only after checking the peephole.
Thomas Reed stood outside.
His coat was wet from the rain.
His expression was exhausted.
“You shouldn’t be here,” I said.
“I know.”
“Then why are you?”
He looked past me toward Clara.
“Because someone leaked the warrant.”
My chest tightened.
“What happened?”
Thomas stepped inside and closed the door behind him.
“The investigation team found out the leak came from inside the courthouse.”
The room went silent.
Clara looked between us.
“Inside the courthouse?”
Thomas nodded.
“And whoever did it knew exactly which judge signed the authorization.”
His eyes moved to me.
“They weren’t just watching Dominic Ward.”
He lowered his voice.
“They were watching you.”
They were watching you.
I felt the room change.
Not because Thomas had raised his voice.
Not because he had delivered the kind of sentence that belonged in a courtroom.
Because his words confirmed the one possibility I had been trying not to name.
This was not only about Dominic.
Dominic was part of something larger.
And somehow, I had become part of the target.
Clara stood near the window.
“Why would anyone watch my mother?”
Thomas looked at her.
“Because your mother signed something that threatens a lot of people.”
“She signs things every day.”
“Yes.”
He glanced at me.
“But most people do not sign the beginning of the end for a criminal network.”
Clara looked at me.
I hated that expression.
The moment when a child realizes their parent has a life they never fully understood.
“You knew.”
It was not an accusation.
That made it worse.
“I knew there was an investigation.”
“Against Dominic?”
I nodded.
“Before tonight?”
“Yes.”
Her face tightened.
“How long?”
“Months.”
“Months?”
She stepped back.
“You were investigating my husband while I was married to him?”
“I was not investigating him personally.”
“That sounds like something you say when the answer is yes.”
I let the silence sit.
Because she deserved honesty.
“I was reviewing evidence connected to a larger case.”
“And Dominic was in it.”
“Yes.”
She looked away.
A hurt expression crossed her face.
Not anger.
Something quieter.
“You knew something was wrong.”
“I suspected.”
“And you never told me.”
I wanted to defend myself.
I had reasons.
Legal restrictions.
Confidentiality.
The danger of compromising an investigation.
All true.
None of them would make her feel less betrayed.
“I could not tell you.”
She nodded slowly.
“I understand.”
But her voice said she did not.
Thomas moved closer.
“Clara, your mother was not protecting Dominic.”
“I know.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“You don’t know.”
Thomas stopped.
“My whole life, people have made decisions for me because they thought they were protecting me.”
Her eyes moved to me.
“Sometimes they were.”
That was the hardest part.
Because she was right.
Protection can become another kind of control when the person being protected has no choice.
“I should have told you I was worried,” I said.
She looked at me.
“Yes.”
One word.
No anger.
No drama.
Just truth.
I accepted it.
Thomas cleared his throat.
“We have another problem.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“The warrant leak means we cannot trust the original circle.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning the people who should be protecting the evidence may be the people exposing it.”
Clara crossed her arms.
“So what happens now?”
Thomas hesitated.
That bothered me.
Thomas Reed was not a person who hesitated often.
“What?”
He looked at me.
“The operation is suspended.”
My stomach tightened.
“Suspended?”
“Temporarily.”
“No.”
“Victoria.”
“No.”
I stood.
“If Dominic knows the investigation is compromised, he will destroy evidence.”
“We know.”
“Then why are you sitting here?”
“Because we are trying to prevent exactly that.”
His frustration showed.
For a moment, I saw not the prosecutor but the man who had spent years building a case piece by piece and watching it become fragile overnight.
“How much does Dominic know?” I asked.
Thomas looked down.
“Enough.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the answer I have.”
The room became quiet.
Clara sat on the edge of the bed.
“Can he get away?”
Nobody answered immediately.
That silence scared her more than any words could have.
Thomas finally said, “Not if we move carefully.”
“Carefully?”
She laughed once.
May you like
A bitter sound.
“He hurt me tonight.”
