Chapter 3: The First Move Was Mine

That night, I didn’t go back to the house Adrian and I shared.

I took Owen to attorney Vivian Hart’s office.

Hart specialized in divorce, defamation, and digital privacy cases. After listening to the recording and reviewing the livestream data and the agreement, she asked me only one question.

“Are you leaving him, or do you just want an apology?”

“Divorce,” I said without hesitation.

“Apply for temporary sole custody. Freeze any suspicious joint accounts. And make sure he’s barred from deleting, moving, or accessing any related electronic evidence.”

It was the first irreversible step I took in this new life.

Hart nodded and immediately had her assistant start preparing the filings.

“From this point on, do not see any of them alone. Don’t let Owen out of your sight. Back up every ID, device, and original file in at least three separate locations.”

On the way to the hotel, Owen clutched his little green dinosaur the entire time.

Once we were inside the room, I photographed the room number, the front-desk registration slip, and the room from every angle. I wedged our suitcase against the door and had the hotel disable room-number lookups by surname.

After his bath, Owen sat on the edge of the bed and asked, “Mom, what’s a livestream?”

My throat tightened.

“It means a lot of people we don’t know saw us through a phone.”

“Did they hear Daddy call me a bastard, too?”

I crouched down and took his cold little hand in both of mine.

“They did. But that was Daddy doing something very wrong. It doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you.”

“Am I really Daddy’s child?”

“Yes.” I looked him straight in the eye. “Tomorrow, a real report will prove it. But no matter what any report says, you are not anyone’s joke.”

He nodded, but after he lay down, he wouldn’t let me turn off the light.

At one in the morning, Adrian texted me.

“You’ve already made the whole family lose face by calling the police.”

“Come back and apologize before the results are out tomorrow. I can still explain tonight away as a marital spat.”

“If you insist on divorce, Owen will know it was you who tore his family apart.”

Then Celeste sent a voice message.

“Nora, the livestream will be deleted soon. Don’t act like the sky is falling over one little performance. Sign the papers, and I’ll have Adrian give you two hundred fifty thousand dollars. We also won’t pursue the matter of you raising another man’s child.”

I forwarded every message and voice memo to Hart.

She replied a minute later.

“Good. One is still calling it a joke, while the other is already trying to buy your silence. Don’t reply. The second the courthouse opens tomorrow morning, we file first.”