Chapter 5: What Happened in 2008
Rachel listened without interrupting.
When Ivan finished, she set her pen down.
"What did happen in 2008?"
Ivan sat across from her.
The office was small — a borrowed room with a whiteboard and two chairs.
He looked at the wall for a moment before he answered.
"Jessi and I were close.
Closer than we should have been." He said it plainly, without softening it.
"Nothing physical.
But Luca found out that I had feelings for her.
He confronted me.
I admitted it.
We nearly ended the friendship that year."
"Did Jessi know?"
"Yes.
She chose Luca.
I accepted that." He paused.
"I moved to Chicago for two years.
When I came back, we all agreed to leave it alone.
It stayed buried."
"Until tonight."
"Until tonight."
Rachel picked up her pen again.
"So his angle is that you're not a credible witness.
That you have a personal motive to destroy his marriage."
"That's the angle."
"It won't hold if the physical evidence is clean." She tapped the sealed evidence bag on the desk.
"The patch is the center of this.
If the lab confirms the compound, and if Jessi's medical records show the documented allergy, his defense falls apart before it starts." She looked at him directly.
"But I need you to be honest with me right now.
Is there anything else from that time — anything he could use to discredit you professionally?"
"No."
"You're certain."
"I'm certain."
Rachel nodded once.
"Then let him try." She stood and picked up the evidence bag.
"I'm taking formal custody of this tonight.
I'll have the lab open at six.
I also want a forensic accountant to look at those bank records Jessi mentioned." She moved toward the door, then stopped.
"The safe.
We need what's in it before he gets a lawyer to the house."
"She gave me the combination."
"Can she give formal consent for us to retrieve it?"
"She's conscious and competent.
Yes."
"Then I need that consent documented in the next thirty minutes." Rachel paused with her hand on the door frame.
"Ivan.
He called you directly to warn you off.
That means he's worried.
Worried men make mistakes." She held his gaze.
"Let him make one."
Ivan was back at Jessi's door when a nurse stopped him in the hallway — young, visibly uncomfortable, holding a folded note.
"Dr.
Sterling.
A man left this at the front desk ten minutes ago.
He said it was for the patient in room fourteen."
Ivan took it without opening it.
He looked at the nurse.
"Who accepted this?"
"The night clerk.
She didn't think—"
"No one accepts anything for this patient without my direct authorization.
Not flowers, not messages, not food.
Nothing." He kept his voice level.
"Please make sure everyone on this floor understands that."
The nurse nodded quickly and left.
Ivan unfolded the note.
Three words, printed in block letters.
*I STILL LOVE YOU.*
May you like
He folded it again and put it in his pocket.
Jessi would not see it tonight.
