Chapter 3 - THE THING I COULD NOT DO FOR HER
Her attorney's name was Rebecca Shaw.
The first thing she told me was:
“You cannot rescue your daughter by taking control away from her.”
I disliked her immediately.
That was probably why she was useful.
Emily met with Rebecca without me.
She spoke with a victim advocate.
She allowed the hospital to preserve photographs.
She declined to file for an emergency protective order that morning.
I wanted to argue.
Rebecca stopped me.
“This is Emily's decision.”
“What if Dustin comes after her?”
“Then we safety-plan. But you don't substitute your judgment for his.”
That sentence cut because it placed Dustin and me inside the same grammatical structure.
I understood the point.
So I followed instructions.
Emily stayed at my house.
We changed nothing on her phone because investigators might later need the messages.
She documented everything she could remember.
Dates.
Photographs.
Voicemails.
Apologies.
Threats.
At noon Dustin called.
Emily put him on speaker with her advocate's approval.
His voice sounded almost gentle.
“Baby, I'm sorry.”
Emily said nothing.
“You scared me last night.”
She looked at me.
Dustin continued.
“You came at me first. You know that.”
There it was.
Not an apology.
Narrative construction.
“You were trying to hit me,” he said.
“I pushed you away.”
“Because you were emotional.”
“You hit me.”
A pause.
Then Dustin lowered his voice.
“Do you really want people knowing what happened?”
“What does that mean?”
“You know exactly what it means.”
The call ended.
Emily went pale.
“What does he have?” Rebecca asked.
Emily did not answer immediately.
Then:
“Gym video.”
Months earlier, Dustin had convinced her to spar with him after hours.
He hit harder than agreed.
Emily became angry and swung after the round ended.
Dustin recorded only the final portion.
He had spent months threatening to post it if she ever accused him of abuse.
“He says he'll prove I'm violent too.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Then we preserve context.”
Emily shook her head.
“There isn't any. The main camera was supposedly broken.”
May you like
That was our first clue.
Because two weeks later, we learned the main camera had not been broken at all.
