Chapter 4 - Ghost from the Past
That evening, as Emma and Sarah were leaving Victoria’s legal offices, a woman in a dark trench coat stepped out from the shadowy alcove near the parking garage.
"Emma?" the woman called out softly.
Sarah immediately stepped in front of Emma defensively. "Who are you?"
The woman pulled down her scarf. She had a faded, thin scar running from her left cheekbone down to her jaw. "My name is Clara. Four years ago, I was engaged to Ethan."
Emma felt the blood drain from her face. Ethan had always told her that his previous fiancée had passed away in a tragic car accident abroad. It was one of the stories he used to build sympathy, painting himself as a heartbroken romantic.
"He told me you were dead," Emma whispered.
Clara gave a sad, bitter smile. "To the socialite world, I am. He paid off my family, forced me to sign an ironclad non-disclosure agreement, and ran me out of the state after he put me in the hospital three weeks before our wedding. When I saw the tabloid headline this morning, I knew I couldn't stay silent anymore."
Clara reached into her handbag and pulled out a worn flash drive. "Everything he did to me—the phone tracking, the isolated bank accounts, the staged 'accidents'—it’s all logged here. Medical reports, police calls that his family bribed away, audio recordings. He uses the exact same script every time."
May you like
Emma stared at the drive in Clara's palm. "Why are you helping me?"
"Because you did what I was too terrified to do," Clara said, her voice cracking with emotion. "You said 'No' in front of two hundred and fifty people. Now let me help you make sure he never does it to anyone else."
