Chapter 10: What Conrad Found
Three days later, Conrad called me into his office.
He had a conference table covered in papers, a yellow legal pad with two full pages of notes, and the look of a man who had found something he hadn't expected.
"Sit down," he said.
I sat.
"Diane Mercer," he said.
"That's her full name.
I ran a background search as part of the filing prep." He turned the legal pad toward me.
"She's done this before."
I stared at him.
"Not identically.
But there's a pattern." He tapped the pad.
"Seven years ago, she was involved with a man in Portland.
Married.
Two children.
She filed a civil claim against him after the relationship ended, alleging a verbal agreement to transfer partial ownership of his business." He looked up.
"The claim was dismissed, but the documents she submitted contained language almost identical to the waiver she drafted for Alaric."
"She has a template," I said.
"That's what it looks like.
She finds men in complicated marriages.
She builds a case while the relationship is ongoing.
When it ends — or when she's ready — she uses the legal framework she's already constructed." He paused.
"Alaric may not have been the architect of this.
He may have been the material."
I sat with that for a moment.
"That doesn't excuse him."
"No.
It doesn't.
He still agreed.
He still signed.
He still stood in that hallway and told you to pack a bag." Conrad closed the pad.
"But it changes the shape of what happened.
And it matters for the filing."
"How?"
"Because if Diane drafted the waiver and directed the legal strategy, she has potential liability.
Fraudulent inducement.
Possibly more, depending on what Alaric's statement covers." He leaned back.
"I've already contacted the attorney who handled the Portland case.
He's willing to provide documentation."
I looked at the papers on the table.
"She came to our house," I said.
"That night.
She stood on my porch with her phone and showed me that photo.
She wasn't afraid of me at all."
"She wasn't expecting you to have a lawyer in the family."
"She thought I'd be alone."
"Yes."
I thought about that woman's face in the doorway.
The cold certainty in it.
The way she'd said *he told me she'd never bring them home* — not with cruelty, but with the flat confidence of someone reading from a script they'd written themselves.
"File everything," I said.
"I intend to." He picked up a pen.
"There's one more thing.
Alaric's statement.
He gave it this morning.
In it, he confirms that Diane drafted the waiver language, directed the timeline, and provided the guardianship document template." He paused.
"He also confirmed that she told him, explicitly, that if the plan failed, she would pursue a separate civil claim against you personally — alleging interference in their relationship."
"She was going to sue me."
"She had the paperwork ready.
Alaric found it on her laptop three months ago and didn't tell you."
The room was very still.
"He knew she was going to come after me and he said nothing."
"He said he thought he could keep it from escalating." Conrad's voice was even.
"He was wrong about a great many things."
I looked at the window.
Outside, the city moved past in its ordinary way, people walking, a bus stopping, a woman pushing a stroller.
"What happens to her?" I asked.
"That depends on how far you want to take it." He folded his hands.
"You have grounds for a civil suit.
Fraudulent inducement, intentional interference, potentially more once we depose her.
It would be expensive and slow." He looked at me.
"Or I file the voiding motion, establish the fraud on record, and let her professional reputation carry the consequence.
The Portland attorney is already talking to a legal ethics board."
"Which do you recommend?"
"The second.
You have three newborns.
You need your energy for them, not for a courtroom fight with a woman who makes her living in courtrooms."
I thought about it.
"Do the filing," I said.
"Make sure her name is on every document.
Make sure it's all on record." I stood up.
"And Conrad — thank you.
For coming that night.
For all of this."
He stood too.
"Petra would have come through that door whether I was with her or not."
"I know," I said.
"But you brought the legal pad."
May you like
He almost smiled.
I picked up my bag and walked out into the ordinary afternoon, and for the first time in four days, I breathed all the way down.
