Chapter 9 - MY FATHER'S SECRET
The next morning, Dad brought coffee and found me staring at the ceiling.
"Didn't sleep?"
"I keep replaying every normal moment."
"That's normal after betrayal."
"Is that something they teach in special operations?"
"No. That's something divorce taught me."
Dad never criticized Mom.
"You never told me that."
"There are a lot of things I confused with privacy."
"I was good at compartmentalizing," he said. "Too good. I came home and treated feelings like classified material."
"That sounds accurate."
"Your mother got tired of living next to a locked door."
"Is that why you divorced?"
"Partly."
"I thought providing safety was the same as creating it. It isn't."
For the first time, I understood the difference between the father I had admired and the man he regretted being.
"Julian was scared of you," I said.
"No. He was contemptuous of what he thought I was."
"A desk soldier."
"A man without status that mattered to him."
Dad reached into his jacket and handed me a small card.
"I didn't call in favors to threaten him," Dad said. "I used one contact to make sure the hospital had a security assessment after Julian grabbed you. That's it. Everything else goes through police, lawyers, and judges."
"Why are you telling me?"
"Because power without boundaries is what got you here. I don't want to answer control with more control."
"You can stop," she said.
"I know."
At four o'clock, Evelyn arrived carrying a cardboard banker box.
"Your husband has changed strategy."
"Again?"
"He filed a motion claiming your father is alienating Chloe and that your refusal to communicate directly is harming co-parenting."
"There's a no-contact order."
"Yes. His filing contradicts itself in paragraph six. I enjoyed that part."
"But he attached photographs."
The photographs showed me leaving rehab in a wheelchair with Dad beside me.
Dad helping Chloe into his SUV.
Dad speaking to a police officer in the hospital hallway.
Julian's attorney described them as evidence of "military intimidation."
"Someone is following us."
Evelyn nodded.
"A licensed private investigator hired by Julian's attorney. Legal if he stays within the rules. Annoying, but legal."
It showed Dana Kessler outside the prosecutor's office.
In the driver's seat was Dr. Mallory.
"Why are they together?" I asked.
"I don't know."
Detective Ortiz.
"Audrey, Dana didn't make it to her second interview. Her apartment is empty. Her phone is off."
"You think she ran?"
Ortiz's voice hardened.
May you like
"We think someone helped her."
And the last person seen with her was the doctor Julian had been paying for months.
