Chapter 7 - THE WOMEN WHO CAME BEFORE
The first woman was named Brooke Simmons.
Javier dated her for seven months while she was completing medical school. Carmen pressured her to place Javier’s name on a house inherited from her grandmother.
When Brooke refused, Javier accused her of cheating and threatened to send altered photographs to her residency program.
She paid him seventy-five thousand dollars to disappear.
The second woman, Lauren Hayes, owned a small chain of fitness studios.
Javier proposed after four months. Carmen organized a private engagement dinner where Lauren was asked to sign documents “combining the families.”
Her accountant intervened before she transferred ownership.
Days later, online reviews accused her studios of fraud and unsafe practices.
She nearly lost the business.
The third woman never became publicly involved with Javier.
Her name was Camille Porter, and she worked for a title company.
Carmen hired her to process a questionable property transfer. When Camille refused, someone broke into her apartment and stole her work laptop.
She had reported the incident, but no connection to Carmen was proven.
All three women agreed to meet Detective Morgan.
None had known about the others.
“He made me feel chosen,” Brooke told Sofia during a private meeting at the prosecutor’s office.
“He studied us,” Lauren said. “That’s different.”
Sofia listened quietly.
“Did either of you meet his mother?”
Both women laughed without humor.
“She interviewed me on the second date,” Brooke replied.
The files from Carmen’s office contained financial profiles, family histories, property estimates, medical information, and personal vulnerabilities.
Sofia’s file was the thickest.
It began eleven years earlier with documents copied during my divorce.
Carmen had tracked Alexander’s business growth, my employment, Sofia’s education, and the condo’s value.
Javier did not happen to meet my daughter at a fundraiser.
Carmen arranged for him to attend.
She selected his suit.
She gave him notes about Sofia’s favorite books, her volunteer work, and the death of her childhood dog.
On their first date, Javier mentioned losing a golden retriever named Molly.
Sofia’s dog had also been named Molly.
She had interpreted the coincidence as a sign.
It had been research.
“Was any part of him real?” she asked me that night.
“Probably.”
She looked surprised.
“That isn’t comforting.”
“He may have liked the food he ordered or the music he played. People who lie for a living still have ordinary preferences.”
“Did he ever love me?”
There was no safe answer.
“I think he loved what you gave him—attention, admiration, access, the feeling that he had fooled someone good.”
“That’s not love.”
“No.”
Sofia removed her wedding ring.
She had kept it on because police photographed the bruising around her finger. Afterward, she said she forgot it was there.
She placed it inside an evidence envelope.
“I want an annulment.”
The petition was filed the next morning.
Javier opposed it from jail, claiming the marriage had been consummated and that Sofia was attempting to conceal marital assets.
The cruelty was calculated.
He knew she would have to discuss the hotel suite in open court.
Carmen’s attorney also subpoenaed my divorce records and Alexander’s business accounts. They intended to argue that the Whitmore family had invented the allegations to recover property and repair Alexander’s reputation.
The annulment hearing became a public spectacle.
Reporters filled the courthouse steps.
Carmen arrived in a wheelchair despite having walked unaided at a medical appointment the previous day.
Her attorney described her as a fragile grandmother being persecuted by wealthy enemies.
Sofia entered through the front doors.
She wore a navy dress with long sleeves, not to hide her injuries but because she had chosen it herself.
Alexander walked on one side.
I walked on the other.
“You don’t have to testify today,” I whispered.
“Yes, I do.”
“The recordings speak for you.”
“That’s the problem.”
Sofia stopped before the courtroom doors.
“Everyone has spoken for me. Javier told people who I was. Carmen told people what happened. Even the recording is my fear without my choice.”
She looked between us.
“Today I use my own voice.”
Inside, Javier sat at the defense table in a county-issued uniform beneath a dark jacket.
He smiled when Sofia entered.
It was the same smile from the altar.
The smile that once made her feel safe.
May you like
Sofia did not look away.
Javier’s smile faded first.
