Chapter 6
Police searched Daniel’s briefcase.
They found more than I expected.
Copies of my driver’s license.
A scanned signature page from an old tax form.
A notary stamp receipt.
Bank statements.
A draft separation agreement giving him access to the house sale proceeds.
A printed text thread with Madison.
Daniel: Once she sees you there, she’ll break.
Madison: What if she fights?
Daniel: She doesn’t. She folds.
I stared at those words.
She folds.
That was the woman he believed he had married.
Maybe he was not entirely wrong once.
I had folded plenty.
At dinners when he insulted my work.
At parties when he joked that my mother’s house was “sentimental clutter.”
At night when he said I was too emotional to handle money alone.
But something about seeing Madison in my robe had turned the folding part of me into steel.
Karen read the text and looked at me.
“Emily, we need to file immediately for a temporary restraining order and property injunction.”
“Yes.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“You’re going to destroy me over paperwork?”
May you like
I looked at the folder.
“No. You destroyed yourself with paperwork.”
