I walked into my fiancé’s townhouse expecting to ask for his passport number. Instead, I found his twenty-two-year-old housekeeper kneeling on the marble floor, crying and protecting her stomach while he stood over her saying, “Get rid of that baby. It will destroy my career.” Adrian thought I was simply the woman he planned to marry. He had forgotten what I did before we met.

Two weeks later, we gathered inside a high-floor conference room at a neutral law firm downtown for Adrian’s official civil deposition.

Adrian sat across the long oak table, surrounded by three top-tier criminal defense attorneys. He looked like a shell of his former self—he had lost weight, dark circles hung under his eyes, and his hands twitched nervously whenever someone rustled a folder.

My lead litigation attorney, Marcus, sat beside me, adjusting his reading glasses.

“State your full legal name for the record,” Marcus began, staring cold-turkey at Adrian.

“Adrian Thomas Sterling,” he muttered, looking down at his polished shoes.

Marcus spent the next two hours meticulously walking Adrian through every single document recovered from the silver flash drive.

“Mr. Sterling, did you draft this police report alleging Rosa stolen forty thousand dollars in jewelry?” Marcus asked, holding up a paper.

Adrian glanced at his primary lawyer, who shook his head subtly.

“On the advice of counsel, I invoke my Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination,” Adrian mumbled.

“Did you threaten to call federal immigration authorities on Rosa if she refused to terminate her pregnancy?” Marcus continued smoothly.

“Fifth Amendment.”

“Did you enter into a prenuptial agreement designed to systematically undervalue Miss Evelyn Harper’s independent foundation assets?”

“Fifth Amendment.”

For three grueling hours, Adrian invoked the Fifth Amendment over fifty times, refusing to answer a single substantive question.

Marcus finally closed his file folder with a heavy, satisfying thud.

“Thank you, Mr. Sterling,” Marcus said with a cold smile. “Your complete refusal to offer a non-incriminating explanation will be noted for the civil trial jury.”