My husband h*t me, and when my parents saw the bruise beneath my eye, my mother looked away and my father said, "It's between husband and wife."

Diane called again at noon.

"Ryan contacted Patrice this morning," she said.

"He showed up at her home."

I stood up from the chair.

"Is she all right?"

"She's shaken but physically fine.

He didn't touch her.

He sat in his car in front of her house for forty minutes, then knocked on her door." Diane's voice was tight.

"He told her that the documents she had were obtained illegally and that he would pursue criminal charges against her for theft of proprietary financial records."

"Can he do that?"

"He can threaten it.

Whether it holds up is a different question — Patrice retained copies of records she had legitimate access to during her employment.

His legal position is weak.

But the threat was designed to frighten her, not to win in court." A pause.

"He also told her that whoever she'd been talking to had used her.

That she was going to take the legal risk while someone else walked away clean."

"He was trying to make her doubt me."

"Yes.

She called me immediately after he left.

She's not backing down.

But Claire, this changes the timeline.

If Ryan is willing to go to her house, we need to move faster on the protective order extension and on getting her documents formally into the legal record before he finds another angle."

"What do you need from me?"

"A signed statement today.

Can you come to my office at two?"

"Yes."

I hung up and turned around.

Maya was in the doorway.

"He went to Patrice's house," I said.

Maya's face went still.

"He's trying to pull the thread," I said.

"If he can scare her into going quiet, the financial records disappear and it goes back to being a straightforward divorce.

His word against mine."

"Then we make sure that doesn't happen."

At two o'clock I sat across from Diane in her office on the fourteenth floor of a building downtown.

The city was grey outside the window.

She slid a document across the desk.

"Read it carefully before you sign," she said.

"It covers the financial transfers, the threatening messages, the incident last night, and your knowledge of Ryan's contact with Patrice this morning."

I read it.

All four pages.

I signed it.

Diane added it to a file that was already thicker than I expected.

"There's something else," she said.

She opened her laptop and turned it toward me.

"Patrice included one email in the documents that I want you to see.

It's from Ryan to Donna Hale.

Dated eleven months ago."

I leaned forward and read.

The email was short.

Eight lines.

Ryan had written: *She's getting suspicious.

I need you to be patient a little longer.

Once the divorce is done I'll move everything into your account.

Just don't contact me on this number after Thursday.*

I sat back.

"He was already planning to leave me," I said.

"It appears so.

And the phrase 'move everything into your account' — combined with the transfer records — suggests he intended to drain the joint assets before or during divorce proceedings." Diane closed the laptop.

"He wasn't just hiding a second family, Claire.

He was building an exit strategy.

You were meant to end up with nothing."

The room was very quiet.

"He cried," I said.

"About the gambling.

Sat at the kitchen table and cried.

I made him tea."

Diane didn't say anything.

She let the silence hold.

"How long before the financial crimes unit moves?" I asked.

"Preliminary review could take two to three weeks.