Chapter 5
The police came again.
They dusted for fingerprints. They took photos. They asked me a hundred questions.
But there was nothing.
No fingerprints. No witnesses. No evidence except the broken locket and the note.
Officer Hale was the one who came this time. He looked at the locket pieces on my pillow and shook his head.
"Linda," he said. It wasn't a question.
"Who else?" I said.
He sighed. "We can't prove it. She was at the hospital until an hour ago. And this..." He gestured at my ransacked bedroom. "This would have taken time. She has an alibi."
"She could have hired someone," I said.
"Maybe," Officer Hale said. "But we need proof. And right now, we don't have any."
He looked at me with kind, tired eyes.
"I'll put a patrol car on your street," he said. "But you should be careful. Linda is desperate now. And desperate people do desperate things."
He left.
I sat on my couch, surrounded by the mess of my life.
Linda wasn't going to go away quietly.
She was going to fight.
And she was going to hurt anyone who got in her way.
My phone rang.
It was David.
"Are you okay?" he said. He'd heard about the break-in from the police.
"I'm fine," I said. "Just shaken up."
"This is my fault," he said. "I brought her into our lives. And now she's hurting you too."
"It's not your fault," I said. "She's the one who's broken."
"I talked to a lawyer," David said. "I'm filing for divorce. And I'm going to make sure she never gets near Emma again."
"Good," I said.
"There's something else," David said. His voice was quieter now. "Linda called me. She said... she said she's going to fight for custody of Emma."
I felt the blood drain from my face.
"She what?"
"She says she's been Emma's mother for two years," David said. "She says she has rights. She says I'm an unfit father because I didn't protect Emma."
"That's insane," I said.
"Maybe," David said. "But she has money. Her family is wealthy. She can afford good lawyers. And she's good at lying. Good at making people believe what she wants them to believe."
He paused.
"Maya, I need your help. If this goes to court, they'll need you to testify. They'll need the video. They'll need everything you saw."
"I'll do it," I said immediately. "Whatever you need."
"Thank you," David said. He sounded relieved. "And Maya? Be careful. She knows you're the key to all of this. She'll come after you again."
"I know," I said.
I hung up.
I looked around my ransacked house.
Linda wasn't just going to fight me. She was going to try to destroy me.
I needed help.
I called my best friend, Sarah. She was a lawyer in the city. She was tough, smart, and she didn't take crap from anyone.
I told her everything.
"I'm coming down," she said immediately. "You need someone who knows the system. And you need someone to watch your back."
"Sarah, you don't have to—"
"Shut up," she said. "I'm your best friend. And someone is threatening you. I'll be there in three hours."
She hung up.
I smiled despite everything.
Sarah was exactly what I needed.
I started cleaning up the mess. I picked up books. I folded clothes. I put the broken locket pieces into a plastic bag for evidence.
I was in the kitchen, putting dishes back into the cabinets, when I heard a sound.
A car pulling into my driveway.
I tensed.
I looked out the window.
It wasn't Sarah. She wouldn't be here for hours.
It was a black SUV I didn't recognize.
Two men got out.
They were big. Tough-looking. They wore dark suits and sunglasses.
They walked up to my front door.
My heart was pounding.
I grabbed my phone and dialed 911.
The doorbell rang.
I didn't move.
Then I heard a voice through the door.
"Ms. Bennett? We're with the law firm of Harrison and Associates. We represent Linda Carter. We'd like to talk to you."
Linda's lawyers.
I didn't open the door.
"I have nothing to say to you," I called through the wood.
"We have a court order," one of them said. "We're here to serve you with a restraining order. And a subpoena to appear in court."
My blood ran cold.
A restraining order?
On what grounds?
"Open the door, Ms. Bennett," the man said. "Or we'll have the police come and make you."
I hesitated.
Then I unlocked the door and opened it just a crack.
One of the men handed me a stack of papers.
"You've been served," he said.
"What is this?" I said.
"A restraining order," he said. "On behalf of Linda Carter. She says you've been harassing her. Stalking her. Making threats against her life."
I stared at him in disbelief.
"That's a lie," I said.
"Tell it to the judge," he said.
He and his partner turned and walked back to their SUV.
I closed the door and locked it.
My hands were shaking as I looked at the papers.
Linda had filed a restraining order against me.
She was claiming I was the dangerous one. The stalker. The threat.
And she'd subpoenaed me to appear in court.
Where she would try to make me look like a liar. A troublemaker.
Someone who couldn't be trusted.
If she won, I wouldn't be able to go near Emma. Or David. Or their house.
I wouldn't be able to testify.
And Linda would get away with everything.
I sank onto the floor, the papers slipping from my hands.
I was in trouble.
Big trouble.
And then my phone buzzed.
A text message from an unknown number.
I opened it.
It was a photo.
Emma, sleeping in her hospital bed.
May you like
And below the photo, a message.
"Stay away from what's mine, or next time it won't be a locket I break."
