Chapter 4 - THE SCREENSHOTS LAURA WANTED TO BELIEVE
Laura gave her attorney every message Rachel had sent.
All of them.
Not just the ones that made Ethan look guilty.
That decision embarrassed her.
Several showed how desperate Laura had become for certainty.
Are you sure this is current?
Did he say my name?
Does he talk about Sophia?
Can you prove the date?
Rachel always had an answer.
Sometimes a screenshot.
Sometimes a cropped photograph.
Sometimes a detail.
One image showed a message apparently from Ethan:
I can't do this until Sophia is older.
Another:
Laura still thinks we're done.
The dates appeared recent.
Laura had stared at those sentences at two in the morning while Ethan slept beside her.
She never showed him.
She wanted stronger evidence first.
That was her mistake.
Not suspicion.
Secrecy.
Rachel gradually changed the conversation.
She claimed Ethan had kept records inside the home because their postnuptial agreement could cost him financially if Laura proved the affair had resumed.
She said she had correspondence in the burgundy file that belonged to her.
“I only want my copies,” Rachel said.
Laura initially refused access.
Rachel responded:
Fine. Keep protecting him.
Three days later she sent another screenshot.
It appeared to show Ethan asking whether Rachel still had the old house key.
That pushed Laura over the edge.
She met Rachel at a coffee shop in Stamford.
Rachel looked composed.
Almost embarrassed.
She said she did not want Ethan back.
She wanted protection.
Laura believed the humility because she needed Rachel to be telling the truth.
She handed over her spare key.
“Tomorrow. Between two and three.”
Rachel nodded.
“I’ll go straight to the office.”
“My daughter won’t be there.”
“I would never involve Sophia.”
Laura remembered the sentence now.
Her stomach turned.
Rachel had looked directly at her when she said it.
That was the part Laura could not explain as misunderstanding.
Rachel knew there was a child in the house.
Knew exactly which hour Laura believed the child would be gone.
And promised specifically not to involve her.
The next morning, Laura learned something else.
Rachel entered at 1:17.
May you like
Forty-three minutes before the time they agreed.
She had never intended to follow Laura’s rules.
