Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN BESIDE MY HUSBAND
Family court granted me temporary physical custody.
Julian received no unsupervised contact until the investigation clarified his role in the assault and the prewritten petition.
Chloe was ordered to stay away from Lily.
Eleanor was barred from direct contact with either of us.
The order did not declare them guilty.
It created distance while facts were gathered.
Arthur moved Lily and me into a secure residential suite owned by an independent medical foundation.
I refused my father’s estate.
Arthur did not argue.
“Your father will.”
“Then do not tell him where we are.”
“He already knows.”
“Of course he does.”
The old anger returned quickly.
My father believed safety justified information.
Julian believed marriage justified control.
I had spent six years pretending those beliefs were opposites.
Lily slept beside me that night, one hand resting against her swollen cheek.
At three in the morning, she woke crying.
“Is Chloe going to be my new mommy?”
I sat upright.
“Why would you ask that?”
“Daddy said she might live with us after you went away.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Before the slap.
Before the petition.
Julian had discussed my removal with our five-year-old daughter.
At supervised visitation the next afternoon, he denied it.
“Lily misunderstood.”
“She repeated your words.”
“I said Chloe might help if you needed treatment.”
“What treatment?”
He looked toward the supervisor.
“For stress.”
“You prepared to call me unstable, take Lily, and bring Chloe into our home.”
“She works with the family.”
Chloe was Sterling Group’s director of public relations and Eleanor’s goddaughter. She had attended holidays, vacations, and private board dinners.
She had also entered my bedroom without knocking three times during the previous month.
I thought Eleanor sent her to inspect me.
Now I understood another possibility.
Arthur’s investigators lawfully obtained building-entry logs through a court preservation request.
Chloe had used Julian’s private apartment in the city thirty-seven times during the past year.
Most visits occurred while he told me he was traveling.
Hotel records showed them sharing a suite during a Sterling conference.
The evidence did not yet prove when an affair began.
It proved Julian’s description of a professional relationship was false.
When confronted, he said the apartment was used for confidential company meetings.
“Then release the security footage,” my attorney replied.
The footage had been deleted.
That evening Chloe posted a public statement.
She expressed sorrow for “a family misunderstanding exploited by an estranged spouse and her mysterious associates.”
She never apologized to Lily.
Attached was a photograph of me handing the black phone to Arthur.
The image had been taken inside the foyer after police ordered everyone to stop recording.
Only four people had remained in that corner.
Julian.
Eleanor.
May you like
A housekeeper.
And a ceiling camera the system claimed had failed.
