Chương 2
Then he had begun choosing more quietly.
The distant sound of sirens reached the estate road.
Trevor glanced toward the door. “Rebecca, think about what you’re saying. Think about Emma hearing you accuse her father of something he didn’t do.”
Emma lifted her face. Her cheeks were wet. “He did.”
Trevor stared at her.
Rebecca turned completely away from him.
Richard spoke into the phone. “Yes. The gate will be open.”
The ambulance arrived first, followed by a sheriff’s deputy because the dispatcher had heard enough in Richard’s answers to send one. The estate gates opened with mechanical slowness. Red lights moved across the stone walls and the family portrait, making painted faces appear to change expression.
Trevor remained in the hall because leaving would have looked like guilt and staying gave him the chance to control the story. He greeted the paramedics by name after hearing them introduce themselves. He explained that his wife had fallen and become confused. He described her pregnancy, her prenatal care, and a history of fainting that did not exist.
Rebecca sat on the bottom stair with Emma still in her arms. One paramedic, a woman with graying hair and a voice that did not rise, crouched in front of her.
“Can I check your mouth?”
Rebecca nodded.
Trevor answered from behind the deputy. “She’s been nauseated all day.”
The paramedic did not look at him. “I’m asking her.”
Something about the repetition nearly made Rebecca laugh. Instead, her eyes filled.
The deputy separated Trevor from the others and led him toward the library. Richard started to follow.
“Stay,” Rebecca said.
Richard looked back at her.
“With Emma.”
He sat beside them on the stair. His tailored suit pulled awkwardly at the shoulders. He had held Emma many times, but usually after announcing that she had grown or asking whether she remembered him. Now he opened his arms without speaking.
Emma did not go.
A brief pain crossed his face. He lowered his hands and rested them on his knees.
The paramedic examined Rebecca’s lip and tooth, asked where she hurt, and pressed gently along her jaw. Rebecca flinched near the hinge. Her cheek had begun to throb. The blood on her dress came from her mouth, not her abdomen, but the paramedic recommended the emergency department because of the pregnancy.
“Can my daughter come?”
“Yes.”
Richard stood. “I’ll drive behind you.”
The deputy returned from the library. He was younger than Rebecca expected, with a sunburned line above his collar. He asked if he could speak to her privately.
Trevor appeared in the doorway behind him. “I’d like my attorney present before anyone questions my wife.”
The deputy turned. “Sir, go back into the room.”
“I know how this works.”
“Then you know I asked you to go back.”
Trevor’s expression changed for less than a second. Rebecca saw the contempt he usually saved for waiters, drivers, and people he believed could not affect him. Then he smiled and returned to the library.
The deputy waited until the door closed.
“Do you feel safe staying here tonight?”
“No.”
“Has he hit you before?”
The correct answer came to Rebecca’s mind first: not like this.
That was the answer she had used for two years. He had grabbed her wrists, blocked doorways, thrown her phone against a wall, shoved a chair hard enough that it struck her shin. Once, during an argument in a hotel room, he had pushed her backward onto the bed and held her down by the shoulders while telling her to stop being dramatic. He had never punched her face.
Until that afternoon.
“Yes,” she said.
Richard looked at the marble floor.
The deputy asked whether there were weapons in the house. Trevor owned two shotguns kept in a locked cabinet in the basement, gifts from a client who invited him to shoot pheasants. Rebecca did not know where the key was.
The deputy wrote that down.
“Did he threaten you today?”
Rebecca glanced at Emma.
The paramedic offered to take the child toward the ambulance. Emma shook her head violently and buried her face again.
“He said if I left, he’d make sure I never saw her without supervision.”
“Why did he say that?”
“I told him I knew about the loan.”
Richard’s head turned.
“What loan?” the deputy asked.
Rebecca swallowed. Her chipped tooth scratched the inside of her lip.
“I don’t know yet.”
The deputy did not press. He photographed the visible injuries with Rebecca’s permission, collected the tooth fragment in a paper evidence envelope, and asked her to describe the assault in her own words. She kept the description short. Trevor had come into the upstairs sitting room with documents from the study. He demanded to know why she had called the family office. She said she had not called anyone, but she had sent an email asking about a lien she found in the county property portal. He accused her of spying. She told him she wanted a lawyer to review everything. He slapped her once. When she tried to move past him, he struck her in the mouth with his fist.
Emma had been standing in the doorway.
Rebecca stopped there.
The deputy’s pen paused. “Did he know she was watching?”
“I don’t know.”
Emma whispered, “I said stop.”
The deputy lowered himself so he was no taller than she was, though she remained in Rebecca’s arms. “I heard you. You don’t have to tell me anything else right now.”
Trevor was not arrested that evening.
May you like
Rebecca had expected the money to change that. Richard had expected his name to change it. The deputy explained that he had to consult a supervisor and the county attorney because the assault was not witnessed by an adult, Trevor denied it, and the visible evidence did not establish every detail on its own. He issued instructions that Trevor remain separated from Rebecca while she left. Another deputy arrived to stay at the estate.
Richard became furious in a low, precise way that frightened employees more than shouting did.
