Chapter 13 - THE MAN WHO THOUGHT HE COULD EXPLAIN IT AWAY
Christopher asked to speak with Michelle before his first hearing.
Her attorney advised against it.
Her therapist-in-training victim advocate advised against it.
Raymond said nothing, which meant he also thought it was a bad idea.
Michelle went anyway.
Through thick glass, Christopher looked tired but not ashamed.
“I can explain.”
Michelle almost laughed.
“Go ahead.”
“I never wanted you hurt.”
“You wanted me accused.”
“That was temporary.”
“You wanted Ellie taken from me.”
“That was for safety.”
“Whose safety?”
He looked frustrated, as though she were refusing to understand simple accounting.
“Everything was collapsing. I needed time.”
Michelle stared at him.
“You chose fraud over us.”
“I chose survival.”
“No,” she said quietly. “You chose yourself.”
For the first time, he lost the smugness that had carried him through the early interviews.
“You don’t understand the pressure I was under.”
Michelle stood.
“You’re right. I don’t understand using a six-year-old as leverage.”
She turned away.
Behind her, Christopher called out:
“I hid that key because I knew my mother would betray me too!”
Michelle stopped for one second.
There it was.
The final irony.
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The evidence that saved her existed because Christopher trusted no one—not even the woman helping him destroy his wife.
She kept walking.
