Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 22751 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 114(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 76(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22751 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 114(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 76(@300wpm)
“What kind of evidence do you have?” Juliet narrows her eyes on me. I didn’t tell her any of this over the phone as a precaution.
“When he was blackmailing me into treating Kate’s mother, I recorded all of my visits.” Juliet lets out a small gasp, but Kate nods for me to keep going. I take a few moments to tell them about my visits to Kate’s house and how he was abusing her mom. “Recording the examinations was a habit from medical school. It made charting easier, so I kept up the practice. Every time I went to their home, I would turn on my recording device and talk quietly to myself as I examined Mrs. Walton. If she thought it was weird she never mentioned it, but looking back, she had to know. It’s why she was so tight-lipped and never implicated Boris in her injuries.”
“If she never implicated him, then what good are the recordings?” Maverick asks the obvious question.
“On my last visit, I started the recording as soon as I got there. But when I found Mrs. Walton at the bottom of the stairs, things quickly changed, and I forgot all about it. It wasn’t until the other night when I was telling Kate about her mother not suffering that I remembered my final conversation with Boris.”
The room falls silent as I turn to Kate and she gives me a soft smile of encouragement. She’s been so brave since finding all this out last night, and I’m reminded again of how lucky I am that she’s mine.
“After I realized she was gone and there was nothing I could do, I called emergency services and waited for the coroner to come so I could give him my statement. As soon as I hung up, I confronted Boris about what happened.” I take a deep breath before telling them the rest. “Last night I pulled the recording, and we listened to it. On it you can hear me telling him that I knew he pushed her down the stairs and that I would testify against him. Then he said that there wasn’t a jury in the country that he couldn’t buy off. He’d done it before and he would do it again. He told me that if I didn’t keep my mouth shut, I might have trouble going down the stairs too.”
“Oh my god,” Juliet breathes as her eyes widen. “You have that on a recording?”
“I forgot that it was still on. It didn’t occur to me that I had evidence against him until last night and I was able to dig it out of my old lab coat. For whatever reason, that night when I got home, I took it off and tossed it in a bag in the back of my closet.” I shrug before looking directly at Kate. “I think I was so ashamed of being a doctor and not being able to save her that I couldn’t wear it again.”
“Wynn,” Kate says softly as tears form in her eyes.
“And you want to play this live on the news?” Maverick asks, and I turn my attention back to him.
“Not yet,” I say and nod to his wife. “First, Juliet is going to get Officer Niks to hold a press conference where Kate will read a statement. I’m going to be there with her to provide photographic evidence of his abuse and show his history of it as the doctor for his late wife. I’m also going to say that I’ve had Kate under a doctor’s care since she feared for her life and ran away from Boris Walton’s home.”
“And he’s supposed to be fine with that?” Maverick looks skeptical as he stares around the table like we’ve all lost our minds.
“No, not at all,” I tell him. “But that’s where you come in. We know that he’ll have no choice but to retaliate, and I want him to know exactly where to find me when it happens.”
“And where is that?” Maverick waits for a beat, and I grin at him.
“Right here.”
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
KATE
“Kate will not be taking questions at this time,” Officer Niks tells the reporters when I’m done addressing them.
Relief fills me that I did it and that part is over. It’s the first step in making sure my father can never hurt another person. Juliet and Wynn helped me draft up what to say. We wanted it to be short and concise and to not show all of our cards. They said it needed to be enough to lure my father out and provoke his anger. Thankfully it doesn't take much to anger him, not when it comes to me.
The statement also needed to strip him of the people that would normally help him out of situations. They needed to know that if they are seen helping him it would be bad for their business. Wynn said the men that prop him up only understand their bottom dollar.