Chapter 12 - THE LAST PERSON SHE TRUSTED
Sophie called Elena at nine on Thursday evening.
"Can you come over?"
Elena frowned.
"What's wrong?"
"I found something."
Sophie sounded frightened.
Elena arrived twenty minutes later.
Sophie stood in the kitchen holding an old laptop.
"I didn't know whether to tell you."
"Tell me what?"
Sophie opened a folder.
Photographs appeared.
Elena and Julian at parties.
Restaurants.
On vacation.
Then emails.
From Sophie to Julian.
Elena stared.
"What is this?"
Sophie began crying.
"Julian contacted me two years ago."
Elena went still.
"He said you were struggling."
"What?"
"He said you were depressed. That you were hiding things. He asked me to tell him if you seemed unsafe."
Elena looked at the messages.
Sophie had reported conversations.
Plans.
Even Elena's attempts to reconnect with friends.
"You told him everything."
"I thought I was helping."
Elena stepped backward.
Sophie reached for her.
"Elena, please."
"Don't."
Sophie stopped.
The room became silent.
Elena had spent months rebuilding trust.
Now she discovered another person had unknowingly helped Julian monitor her.
"I'm sorry," Sophie whispered.
Elena looked at her.
"Did you know he hurt me?"
"No."
"Did you know he threatened me?"
"No."
"Did you ever ask me?"
Sophie began crying harder.
Elena closed her eyes.
That was the answer.
Sophie had believed Julian because he sounded concerned.
Because he was charming.
Because he knew how to make control look like love.
Elena picked up her coat.
"I need time."
Sophie nodded.
"I understand."
At the door, Elena stopped.
"Send everything to Maya."
"I will."
"And Sophie?"
"Yes?"
"Next time someone tells you a woman is unstable, talk to the woman."
Sophie covered her mouth.
"I will."
***
The emails became crucial evidence.
They showed Julian systematically isolating Elena.
They also revealed something else.
Martin Bellman had instructed Julian to keep Elena away from her mother's house.
Repeatedly.
Why?
Because Arthur's records were hidden there.
Julian had never found them.
For three years, he had kept Elena close enough to monitor but too frightened and dependent to investigate her father's death.
When Elena finally left him, the entire plan began collapsing.
That night, investigators arrested Martin Bellman.
Julian disappeared.
And Elena received one final message.
YOU RUINED EVERYTHING.
She stared at it.
Then forwarded it to Maya.
She did not answer.
May you like
For once, Julian's anger had nowhere to land.
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