Chapter 5 - THE OTHER WOMAN WHO “FELL”
Once I retained my own attorney, Derek became careful.
For almost three weeks.
No grabbing.
No shouting near open windows.
No broken objects.
Instead, he documented me.
Every emotional moment.
Every forgotten appointment.
Every glass of wine.
Every call with my sister.
He started sending texts after arguments:
I’m worried about you.
You seemed confused tonight.
Please consider talking to someone.
I recognized the pattern because Olivia had shown me similar messages years earlier and I had dismissed them.
Derek had texted her:
You’re spiraling.
You need sleep.
You’re becoming obsessive.
Same language.
I searched my old messages with her.
There were dozens I had never reread.
One stopped me.
OLIVIA:
He’s going to make me sound crazy before he lets anyone look at the books.
I had replied:
I think you need time away from the company.
I sat on our bathroom floor and cried.
Not because Olivia blamed me.
Because she hadn’t.
She had tried to warn me.
I called her.
She answered after six rings.
“Rachel?”
“I’m sorry.”
Silence.
Then:
“What happened?”
I told her about the subpoena.
The declaration.
Derek’s pressure.
Mason.
The bruises.
Not every detail.
Enough.
Olivia started breathing differently.
“Has he ever forced you to explain an injury?”
I froze.
“Why?”
“Because he did that with Mom.”
“What?”
Five years earlier, before Warren died, Joanne had fractured her wrist.
Family story:
She fell from a step stool in the company storage room.
Olivia said that wasn’t true.
Derek had grabbed Joanne during an argument about money.
She pulled away.
Fell.
Broke her wrist.
Joanne told urgent care she slipped.
I felt cold.
“Why would Joanne protect him?”
“Because Dad was dying. Because the company was unstable. Because she kept saying Derek couldn’t survive another scandal.”
Another woman.
Another fall.
Another clean story.
“Did he hit her?”
“I don’t know. I saw the aftermath.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
She had.
I simply hadn’t understood the scale.
Then Olivia said:
“Rachel, if he ever tells you to say you fell or crashed, don’t.”
May you like
The sentence would return to me two months later inside our car.
At the time, I only wrote it down.
