Chapter 6
Gary returned with something he had hidden.
His phone.
Not the current one.
An older device he stopped using two months earlier.
“There are messages.”
Rocco did not take it.
“Give it to your attorney.”
Gary looked confused.
“So nobody can claim I made you hand evidence directly to me.”
Gary nodded slowly.
The messages were preserved and reviewed.
A Reed family group thread included Preston, Brenda and Gary.
Most messages were ordinary.
Then, the morning Audrey planned to leave:
PRESTON:
She’s packing.
BRENDA:
You said you’d handle it.
PRESTON:
I am.
GARY:
Handle what?
No response.
Later:
BRENDA:
She slipped.
GARY:
What happened?
PRESTON:
Nothing permanent.
Gary stared at that phrase when his attorney showed him the extraction.
“I remember reading it.”
“Why didn't you ask?”
“I did.”
His next message:
GARY:
What does that mean?
Preston called him instead of replying.
No written answer remained.
The group chat went silent for two days.
Then another message from Brenda:
She’s staying home now. Problem solved.
Rocco read it.
Audrey had spent twelve days recovering at the townhouse after the fall.
Preston controlled visitors.
Brenda brought meals.
Gary visited once.
Rocco had offered to move Audrey to his house.
She refused because Preston convinced her the fall happened because she was rushing while upset.
“You were blaming yourself,” Rocco said later.
Audrey looked embarrassed.
“He kept saying stress was making me careless.”
“And Brenda?”
“She agreed.”
The first fall had accomplished something even without ending the pregnancy.
It kept Audrey inside Preston’s house.
It delayed the separation.
It taught her to distrust her own judgment.
For almost two weeks.
May you like
Then Audrey began planning again.
That was when Brenda’s behavior toward the pregnancy changed.
