Chapter 4 - WHAT THEY DID TO EMILY
I wanted to ask who hurt her first.
Instead, I asked:
“Do you want to talk?”
Emily nodded.
So I listened.
The first man through the bedroom door had been Travis Cole.
She recognized him because he had come to our house pretending to follow up on her parking-garage report.
Behind him were two men she didn’t know.
Cameron entered last.
“He wasn’t angry,” she whispered.
“That’s what scared me.”
I squeezed her hand.
“He looked entertained.”
Emily had backed toward the window.
Cameron told her she had created trouble for people who could make trouble disappear.
She told him to leave.
He laughed.
Then Travis took her phone.
“They wanted the garage video.”
“What video?”
Emily looked at me.
“I never told you.”
My stomach tightened.
“What did you keep?”
“The original clip.”
She had recorded twelve seconds after witnessing Cameron attack the woman.
Enough to show him pulling her back when she tried to leave.
Emily had already sent a copy to police.
Then the case vanished.
So she saved another encrypted copy.
“Where?”
She almost smiled.
“Not on anything inside our house.”
Good girl.
Cameron didn’t know that.
They searched.
Found nothing.
Then tried frightening her into revealing the location.
My throat closed.
“Emily…”
She looked away.
“I’m not telling you every detail today.”
I nodded immediately.
“You don’t have to.”
That was difficult.
Necessary.
She continued.
“They broke my right leg first.”
I felt my face go cold.
“Blake.”
“I’m here.”
“You’re leaving.”
She knew me too well.
I forced myself back.
“I’m here.”
“They thought pain would make me give them the copy.”
It didn’t.
So they broke the other leg.
Then Cameron told Travis to make it look like a home invasion.
Instead, something scared them.
A radio call.
Maybe Ferris.
Maybe dispatch traffic.
They left.
A neighbor eventually found Emily after hearing the alarm.
At 6:52 a.m., my phone buzzed.
Dana Price.
Warrants executed.
Cameron Voss and Travis Cole in custody.
Sheriff Nathan Cole suspended pending investigation.
I read it aloud.
Emily closed her eyes.
A breath left her body as though she had been holding it for three weeks.
“Is it over?”
I thought carefully.
“The part where they get to reach you is over.”
She opened her eyes.
“And the rest?”
“The rest is yours.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means nobody gets to decide whether you testify.”
I squeezed her fingers.
“Not Cameron.”
“Not the sheriff.”
A pause.
“Not even me.”
Emily stared at me.
Then she nodded.
“Good.”
May you like
Because my wife did not need me to avenge her.
She needed me to remember that what happened was hers before it was mine.
