Chapter 7 - The Bribe
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The realization that the unedited footage contained premeditated malice sent absolute panic through the Bradford camp.
Three days before the trial was set to begin, I was sitting on the floor of my living room, helping Lily build a tower out of wooden blocks. Derek was at the hardware store running an errand.
The doorbell rang.
I checked the security monitor on my phone. Standing on my front porch, looking incredibly uncomfortable and glancing nervously over his shoulder, was Richard Bradford.
He was violating the spirit of the restraining order, if not the direct legal phrasing, by showing up at my house while Derek wasn't home.
I hesitated, but a surge of defiant confidence propelled me forward. I wasn't going to hide in my own home.
I opened the door, leaving the security chain attached.
“What do you want, Richard?” I asked coldly.
Richard looked exhausted. He was holding a thick, manila envelope in his trembling hands. “Annette, please. I just need five minutes of your time. Derek isn't answering my calls.”
“Because we have nothing to say to you.”
“Please,” Richard begged, his voice cracking. “Evelyn is terrified. Thorne told us about the upgraded charges. She’s looking at actual prison time, Annette. She’s a sixty-seven-year-old woman. She won't survive it.”
“She should have thought about her survival before she assaulted a mother in front of her child,” I replied, entirely unmoved by his plea.
Richard sighed, looking down at his expensive shoes. He pushed the manila envelope through the small gap in the doorway.
“What is this?” I demanded, not touching it.
“It’s a cashier’s check,” Richard whispered, ashamed. “For two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. And the deed to a vacation property in Aspen, fully paid off.”
I stared at the envelope, my blood boiling.
“You’re trying to bribe me?” I asked, my voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.
“I’m trying to settle this out of court,” Richard corrected desperately. “Take the money, Annette. Take the house. Just call the DA and tell them you don't want to testify. Without your cooperation, the case falls apart. We’ll pay you whatever you want. Half a million. Just name your price.”
I looked at the man who had sat silently at the head of the table while his wife struck me. He believed that every problem in the world, including violence and cruelty, could simply be erased with a large enough check. He fundamentally misunderstood who I was.
“I don't want your money, Richard,” I said, looking him dead in the eye. “I don't want your houses. I want your wife to stand in front of a judge and answer for what she did.”
I pushed the envelope back through the gap, letting it fall onto the porch.
“You can’t win this, Annette!” Richard suddenly shouted, his desperation turning to anger. “You’re dragging our name through the mud for a minor slap! You’re tearing Derek away from his family!”
“Derek chose his family, Richard,” I stated fiercely. “And you’re looking at her.”
May you like
I slammed the heavy oak door shut, throwing the deadbolt with a satisfying, definitive click.
I walked back to the living room, picking up a wooden block and placing it on top of Lily’s tower. The war was officially on, and the Bradfords were entirely out of ammunition.
