Chapter 5 - The Trial of the Man I Married
Paige accepted immunity in exchange for full cooperation.
Her statement admitted that by the final messages, she understood what Derek’s delivery instructions were meant to accomplish, even though she hadn’t known the substance involved.
She testified that he had told her he was “handling the Renee situation” and warned her against asking questions.
I made sure she kept her job.
It was the one act of mercy I allowed myself in the proceedings. I understood how fear of the person signing your paycheck could make saying no feel impossible.
That didn’t make her conduct harmless. It didn’t mean I would trust her again.
I extended no such mercy to Derek.
He pleaded not guilty. His lawyer suggested the substance might have been purchased for pest control.
Dr. Mercer’s testimony explained why that account didn’t fit the laboratory findings.
Ellis presented the digital and financial trail. Walter explained the recovered messages and how they had been examined.
I testified for six hours over two days, during the last trimester of my pregnancy.
The hardest part wasn’t describing the office.
It was explaining why I had gone home after seeing the forged signature. Why I had continued sharing a house and a bed with Derek while quietly saving documents.
Some part of me had still wanted to be wrong.
“I didn’t trust my own fear to be enough,” I said. “I needed proof.”
I had spent my career insisting that feelings weren’t evidence. I held myself to that rule even when waiting almost cost me my life.
The jury deliberated for four hours.
Guilty on all counts.
Constance didn’t attend sentencing. She sent a letter that was read into the record.
She wrote that she had mistaken control for love and that her son had learned to treat people as assets to manage. She made clear that this was an acknowledgment, not an excuse.
She called me her daughter-in-law.
For six years, that relationship had seemed to inconvenience her. Now she wrote that she owed me the truth in every room where she was asked to tell it.
Derek received thirty-two years.
May you like
There was no number that could return the nights I had spent beside him, trying to decide whether I should fear the man I married. But the sentence meant he would no longer be beside me.
I didn’t have to make it feel like enough before beginning to live.
