Chapter 5: What He Did Next
Diana called at eight-fifteen Thursday morning, before Evelyn had left the flat.
"Don't bring Lily to school the usual way today," she said, without greeting.
Evelyn stopped in the hallway, coat half on.
"What?"
"There's a photographer outside your building.
Possibly two.
Julian has contacted a tabloid — one of the mid-market ones that runs family court drama.
They're running a piece this weekend.
The angle is that you're an unstable woman who physically @ssaulted her husband at a charity event and is now making fraudulent claims against his late mother's estate."
The coat slid off one shoulder.
Evelyn pulled it back up.
"He's going to the press."
"He already has.
The story is written.
It runs Saturday unless we do something before then." Diana's voice was even, the way it always was, which Evelyn had come to understand meant the situation was serious enough that panic would waste time.
"I've spoken to Gerald Foss this morning.
He's prepared to make a statement confirming the codicil's legitimacy.
That helps.
But the video is the thing that changes the story."
"You said it goes into evidence."
"It goes into evidence for the court case.
That's different from it being seen." A pause.
"Evelyn, I need to ask you something, and I need you to think before you answer."
"Ask."
"The recording shows Julian h*tting you.
It shows Eleanor telling you that you provoked it.
It shows Julian threatening you.
It shows the full exchange — including his exact words about Lily." Diana paused.
"If that recording were released publicly before Saturday, the tabloid story becomes impossible to print.
The narrative reverses.
Julian becomes the story, not you."
Evelyn was quiet.
"You're asking me if I want to release it," she said.
"I'm telling you it's an option.
I'm not telling you to do it.
There are legal considerations.
Once it's public, we can't control where it goes or how it's used.
It will be seen by a great many people.
Including people who know Lily." Another pause.
"And it will show your daughter in distress."
Lily was in her room, putting her shoes on.
Evelyn could hear the small sounds of it — the zip of her backpack, the scrape of a chair.
"What does releasing it actually do to the court case?" Evelyn asked.
"Strengthens it.
Public record of his behavior.
Witness statements from people who were in that ballroom are already easier to obtain than they were Monday — three have contacted my office voluntarily.
The recording makes the assault undeniable." A brief pause.
"Julian's lawyers will argue it was released to prejudice the proceedings.
That argument will fail.
But they'll make it."
"And if we don't release it?"
"The tabloid story runs Saturday.
It will be ugly.
It will name Lily.
And Julian will have controlled the first version of events."
Lily appeared in the hallway, backpack on, looking at Evelyn's face with the focused attention of a child who has learned to read rooms.
"Is something wrong?" Lily asked.
"We're going to take a different way to school today," Evelyn said.
"The long way.
Past the park."
Lily accepted this without question.
She went to put her coat on.
Evelyn turned back toward the window.
The street below looked ordinary.
She couldn't see anyone with a camera, but that meant nothing.
"Diana," she said.
"The recording.
Does it show Lily's face?"
"Her back, mostly.
Her voice is audible.
Her face — briefly, at the start, when Julian first speaks to her."
Evelyn closed her eyes for three seconds.
"Send it to me," she said.
"I want to watch it before I decide."
"I'll send it now."
The file came through while Lily was still in the hallway.
Evelyn watched it once, standing by the kitchen window, the sound low.
Three minutes and forty-seven seconds.
She watched Julian's face when he said the word *thief*.
She watched Lily press into her side.
She watched her own face in the moment before the h*t — still trying to reason with him, still believing words might work.
She watched Eleanor's expression when she said *you provoked him*.
She watched herself stand still afterward.
Not crumpling.
Not running.
Standing.
She watched the moment she moved toward Julian instead of away.
She watched Lily's hands grip the back of her dress.
She put the phone in her pocket.
"Lily," she called.
"Ready!" Lily called back.
They took the long way to school, past the park, through the side streets.
No one followed them.
Evelyn held Lily's hand the whole way and listened to her daughter talk about a project on the solar system that was due next week and which planet she had chosen — Saturn, because of the rings, because they were made of ice and rock and they had been there for billions of years and nobody had put them there, they had just formed that way on their own.
"That's a good reason," Evelyn said.
"I know," Lily said, with complete confidence.
Evelyn dropped her at the school gate, watched her walk through, watched the door close.
Then she called Diana.
"Release it," she said.
By Friday morning, the video had been viewed four hundred thousand times.
By Friday afternoon, three of the charity gala's major sponsors had contacted the Harcourt Foundation asking for a statement.
By Friday evening, Julian's lawyers had sent a new letter.
It was not an offer this time.
It was a demand — that Evelyn remove the recording from public circulation immediately, citing privacy violation and prejudice to ongoing proceedings.
Diana read it, set it down on her desk, and looked at Evelyn across the table.
"He's frightened," she said.
"Good," Evelyn said.
"It gets more complicated from here."
"I know."
Diana picked up her pen.
"Then let's get to work."
What neither of them knew yet was that by the time they left that office, Julian had already called someone else.
Someone who wasn't a lawyer.
May you like
Someone who had known Evelyn for a very long time.
And that person had agreed to help him.
