Todos os capítulos de Making My Ex-Husband Crawl: Capítulo 61 - Capítulo 70

Dante's PovThe waiting room had four plastic chairs and a vending machine that hummed too loudly.We had been there for thirty minutes. Valerie was beside me with her hands in her lap and her eyes on the middle distance. She was not pacing. She was not checking her phone. She was just sitting with the particular stillness that meant she was managing something significant and had decided this was not the place to do it publicly."The asset transfers," I said. Not to start a conversation. Just to have something in the air."What about them?" she said."The administrator has been working through the list," I said."The Harrington property is already in process. The Meridian block cleared last week. The three remaining properties should complete within ten days.""With Cassian in custody it accelerates," she said."Significantly," I said. "Any legal challenge he had standing to make through a lawyer drops the moment he is formally charged. His assets are frozen as part of the criminal pr

Dante's PovThe public defender's statement had run on three outlets by morning.I read it at six while Valerie was still asleep. Then I read the responses. The financial press was sceptical. One columnist had already noted that the statement came the same night as the arrest and the kidnapping attempt, which made the framing narrative somewhat difficult to sustain.Two others had pulled the background on the criminal case and published timelines that made the public defender's claim look exactly as weak as it was.But the tabloids were running it straight.Valerie came out at seven and I showed her the summary without preamble.She read it. Put the tablet down. Poured coffee."The tabloids are the only ones running it uncritically," she said."Yes," I said."Which means the framing narrative does not have serious traction," she said."Not yet," I said. "But the public defender is going to keep pushing it. The strategy is to create enough noise that the jury pool is contaminated befor

Dante's PovShe told me about the request over dinner.Not immediately. She waited until we had finished eating and the plates were cleared and the evening was settled around us. Then she put her phone on the table with the email open and slid it toward me.I read it, put the phone down. Did not say anything for a moment."Before you say no," she said."I said no on the phone this afternoon," I said. "I am going to say it again now.""Say it then," she said."No," I said. "He asked you to come alone. Which is the same ask he made before the kidnapping attempt. The last time he requested a meeting with you alone something very specific was being planned.""He is in custody," she said."He is in a facility with a visitation room," I said. "Alone means you and him and a table between you and whatever he says.""With a guard outside," she said."With a guard outside," I said. "Yes.""And everything recorded," she said."Also yes," I said. "And I know all of that. And I still do not want y

Dante's PovThe prosecutor's team sent the hearing documents at seven in the morning.I was already at my desk. I read through the full package while Valerie was on the phone with Marcus in the other room.The hearing was in four days, not the full trial. A preliminary hearing to determine the admissibility of Cassian's statements.His public defender was arguing that the gate recording, the station confession, and the visitation room recording were all obtained under conditions that made them inadmissible.It was a long argument with thin legs. But thin-legged arguments still needed answering.Valerie came in when I was on the third document."Marcus says the DA's team is confident," she said. "The gate recording issue has been resolved. The supplementary basis for admissibility they found covers it.""The station confession is clean," I said. "He waived counsel voluntarily. The officer's account confirms there was no pressure.""And the visitation room," she said. She sat across fro

Dante's PovThe recess lasted twelve minutes.I used them to stand in the corridor with Valerie and the DA and say very little because there was very little to say that was useful."He is naming an accomplice," the DA said. Her voice was tight. Professional tight, not panicked. "Or claiming one. We need to understand which before the session resumes.""Can you question him during the recess?" I said."He is representing himself," she said. "Any conversation I have with him on the record has to go through the court. Off the record he will not speak to me." She looked at Valerie. "Did you have any indication of this in the visitation room?""No," Valerie said. "He said he did it himself.""He said he changed the tires himself," I said. "That does not exclude someone else being present.""That is the argument he is going to make," the DA said. "That doing it himself and having someone with him are not mutually exclusive.""Who could it have been?" Valerie said."Unknown," the DA said. "W