Chapter 6 - Drawing the Battle Lines
By four that afternoon, Ryan had settled me into his guest bedroom.
My own apartment was compromised; my mother had the spare key, and after the scene at the hospital, Ryan refused to let me stay anywhere unprotected. His condo on the twentieth floor overlooking the harbor was quiet, gated, and fortified by private security downstairs.
"Detective Martinez said Paige invoked her right to remain silent after thirty minutes in the interrogation room," Ryan said, setting a bowl of warm broth on the nightstand beside me. "Her father posted her bail by two o'clock. But the prosecutor has already seen the country club's private security footage. It's not just the phone video that went viral—the venue had an overhead 4K camera right above the patio."
"What did the overhead video show?" I asked, struggling to sit upright as Ryan carefully adjusted the pillows behind my spine.
"It showed her watching you for ten minutes," Ryan said grimly. "She watched you take off your heels, put your purse down, and turn your back. Then she walked fifteen paces straight toward you, locked her elbows, and threw her full body weight into your spine. There is zero defense of 'playfulness.' The state attorney is charging her with aggravated battery causing severe bodily harm."
My phone rang on the bedside table. It was an unfamiliar local number.
Ryan gave me a questioning look. I tapped the speaker icon with my left thumb. "Hello?"
"Maya? Is this Maya?" A deep, exhausted voice came through the speaker.
It was Julian. The man who had supposedly married my sister less than twenty-four hours ago.
"Julian," I answered warily. "Why are you calling me?"
"I’m calling from my lawyer’s office," Julian said, his breath hitching. "I... I needed to know if you were okay. The doctor’s report leaked to the press twenty minutes ago. Maya, I am so goddamn sorry."
"Did you know she was going to do it?" I asked bluntly.
"No! I swear to God, no!" Julian's voice cracked with desperation. "I was on the other side of the pavilion talking to my uncle when the screams started. When Paige ran back inside laughing, she told everyone you were drunk and tripped over your own gown. She lied to me, Maya. She lied to my entire family."
"And what are you going to do now, Julian?"
"We never signed the registry at city hall. The ceremonial vows yesterday meant nothing legally," Julian replied coldly. "My father’s legal team filed an emergency restraining order against Paige and her parents an hour ago. We're serving Eleanor and your father with a breach-of-contract lawsuit for fraudulent misrepresentation of family assets, and I'm officially annulling whatever sham of a marriage this was."
May you like
He took a ragged breath. "If you need a witness statement for the criminal trial, Maya... my entire family will testify against her. She destroyed everything."
***