Chapter 6
I drove upstate the next morning.
Rebecca’s bookstore was in a small town where everybody knew everybody’s business. The sign above the door read Pages & Peace.
Fitting.
I pushed the door open.
A bell jingled.
The store smelled like old paper and coffee. Shelves lined every wall, packed tight with books of every genre. A cat slept on a cushion by the window.
At the counter, a woman was stacking new releases.
Rebecca.
She looked up when I came in.
Mid-thirties. Warm eyes. A scar along her left jawline that she’d tried to cover with her hair.
I knew that scar.
Knew what caused it.
Not from a fall.
Not from an accident.
From a hand.
“Can I help you find something?” she asked.
Her voice was soft.
Cautious.
“I’m not here for a book. My name is James Carter. I’m Lily’s father.”
Her face closed like a door slamming shut.
She put down the book she was holding.
“I don’t know who that is. And I don’t want any trouble. Please leave.”
“I know you’re scared of him,” I said. “I know what he did to you. I’ve seen the scars. The same ones he’s putting on my daughter now.”
Rebecca flinched.
“You don’t know anything about me.”
“I know you were married to Ethan Sterling. I know he hurt you. I know you signed an NDA. And I know you’ve spent the last ten years looking over your shoulder, waiting for him to come after you again.”
I moved closer to the counter, keeping my hands visible.
“I’m not here to force you to do anything. I’m here because you said something to my investigator. You said you hoped Lily gets out before it’s too late. She’s out. She’s safe. But Ethan isn’t going to stop. Not unless we stop him. And to do that, I need your help.”
Rebecca looked away.
Toward the window.
Toward the street.
Always watching.
“If I talk,” she whispered, “he’ll ruin me. He said he’d burn the store to the ground. He said he’d hurt my sister. He has people, you know. People who do things for him.”
“I have people too.”
She looked back at me.
“Who are you?”
“I’m the man who’s going to take Ethan Sterling down. I have resources. I have protection. I can keep you safe. And your sister. And anyone else he’s threatened. But you have to trust me.”
She studied my face.
For a long time.
Then she sighed.
“Come to the back. We can talk there.”
She led me through a door behind the counter to a small office. Closed the door. Locked it.
Only then did she seem to breathe.
“What do you want to know?”
“Everything. From the beginning.”
She sat down heavily in a chair.
“We met at a charity gala. He was charming. Handsome. Said all the right things. I thought I was lucky. I thought I’d found the one.”
She paused.
“The first time he hit me was three months after we started dating. I’d forgotten to call him when I said I would. He said I was disrespectful. That I needed to learn my place. And then he apologized. Cried. Bought me a necklace. Said it would never happen again.”
Her hand went to the scar on her jaw.
“It happened again. A lot. He’d break things. Throw things. Push me. Slap me. Once he held my head under water in the bathtub because I’d smiled at a waiter. Said I was flirting. Said I was making him look like a fool.”
I sat very still.
The rage was building.
Hot and tight in my chest.
“Why didn’t you leave sooner?”
She laughed bitterly. “Where would I go? He told me he’d find me. That no matter where I ran, he’d track me down. And I believed him. He had so much power. So much money. Everybody loved him. Nobody would have believed me. I was just the crazy, jealous wife.”
She looked me in the eye.
“Is Lily… is she okay?”
“She will be. She’s safe now. But Ethan’s already trying to reach her. Trying to intimidate her. He sent flowers to my house. Texted me trying to buy me off.”
Rebecca nodded. “That’s how he operates. First the charm. Then the threats. Then the money. He thinks everything can be fixed with a check.”
She reached into a drawer and pulled out a small box.
Pushed it across the desk to me.
“I kept these. I shouldn’t have. But I couldn’t throw them away. I always thought… someday someone would need them.”
I opened the box.
Inside were photographs.
Old, faded polaroids.
Rebecca with black eyes.
Bruises on her arms.
A split lip.
Hospital records.
Police reports that had been buried.
Letters from Ethan’s lawyers threatening to destroy her if she ever spoke.
“This is everything,” she said. “Everything I have. It’s not much. But maybe it’s enough.”
I closed the box.
“It’s more than enough. Thank you. You have no idea how much this means.”
She nodded.
“Just promise me one thing.”
“Anything.”
“Make sure he can’t do this to anyone else. Ever again.”
I stood up.
“I promise.”
On the drive back to the city, I called Marcus.
“We got it,” I said. “Rebecca talked. She has evidence. Photographs. Records. Ethan has a pattern. And we’re going to use it to destroy him.”
Marcus was quiet for a moment.
“Good. Because we have a problem. Ethan just filed for divorce. And he’s asking for full control of all their assets. He’s also filed a restraining order against you. Claims you threatened him. Claims you’re unstable. And he’s telling everyone who will listen that Lily is mentally ill. That she’s making up the abuse because she wants more money in the divorce.”
I gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white.
He was playing dirty.
Trying to destroy Lily’s reputation before she could even tell her story.
Typical Ethan.
“Then we go public,” I said.
“James… are you sure? Once we do this, there’s no going back. Your identity will be out there. The whole world will know who you are. And Ethan will come after you with everything he has.”
I thought of Lily.
Of Rebecca.
May you like
Of every person Ethan Sterling had ever hurt.
“Let him come,” I said. “I’ve been hiding long enough.”
