Chapter 6 - The Allies Gather (Expanded Version)
By morning, the news of Daniel's arrest had already begun rippling through the local legal and real-estate communities. Because Daniel was a prominent partner at Mercer & Hayes, his arrest for domestic violence and felony endangerment was front-page local news.
Around 10:00 AM, there was a soft knock at my hospital room door. I expected Detective Vance, but instead, the door swung open to reveal a woman I hadn't seen in over six years: my younger sister, Maya.
She took one look at me in the hospital bed, dropped her overnight bag, and rushed across the room, wrapping her arms carefully around my shoulders so she wouldn't jar my stitches.
"I caught the news in Chicago last night," Maya choked out, tears spilling over her eyelashes. "Claire... oh god, Claire. Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you reach out?"
"I was ashamed," I murmured into her shoulder, the last remaining walls of my defense crumbling entirely. "He made me feel like it was my fault. He isolated me from everyone until I believed I had nowhere else to go."
"He won't ever touch you again," Maya said fiercely, pulling back and wiping her eyes. "I spoke to a family law attorney this morning. And guess what? Word got out about why he was arrested. Do you know who called my cell phone twenty minutes ago?"
I shook my head, exhausted.
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"Elena Vance—Daniel's former paralegal who quit abruptly two years ago," Maya said, her eyes flashing with vindication. "She said she has boxes of shredded documents, audio recordings of him boasting about how he controlled your finances, and proof of corporate embezzlement that he tried to pin on junior associates. Daniel thought he was untouchable, but he left a trail of victims behind him."
The pieces of a puzzle I thought I would never solve were suddenly falling into place.