Chapter 9 - THE STORY SHE WANTED ME TO TELL
Detectives found a folded sheet in the clear tote.
Not signed.
My name printed at top.
First person.
I asked to spend several days alone because pregnancy and marital stress became overwhelming.
I turned off my phone.
I did not want Auberon contacted.
Fenella respected my request.
No one confined me.
I chose not to eat much because I felt nauseated.
I became weak and embarrassed.
I do not want police involved.
I stared at it.
“Did you write this?”
“No.”
“See it before?”
“No.”
The typing style matched documents produced on Fenella’s laptop.
Metadata later confirmed the file was created there on Day Three.
Then a handwritten note in Fenella’s notebook:
Have C copy.
Not sign if shaky.
Video statement better?
There.
She had planned to make me repeat it.
Why would I?
Because after five days weak and frightened, she believed I would.
Then another line:
If she refuses, A needs to see instability.
Again.
The plan was becoming visible.
Fenella did not merely want to punish me.
She wanted the punishment erased afterward by forcing me to describe it as voluntary.
Then one final unanswered question:
Why exactly five days?
Because Auberon’s work trip lasted five days.
But why choose that trip?
The notebook started two weeks earlier.
Before the trip was confirmed.
Auberon had mentioned the assignment to Fenella only after his company finalized it.
Two hours later, her notebook contained:
Possible window.
May you like
That was not spontaneous anger.
Chapter Ten would establish the plan was built around his absence.
