Chapter 19 - The Predecessor's Warning
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Two days later, I sat in a dimly lit corner booth of a secluded diner two hours outside the city limits. Across from me sat Clara Montgomery.
She looked to be in her mid-thirties, with sharp, intelligent features, but her hands trembled slightly as she held her ceramic coffee mug. A faint, jagged scar ran along the edge of her left collarbone.
“I promised myself I would never say his name again,” Clara said softly, staring into her dark coffee. “When I saw your picture on the news last night, Emily... I threw up in my sink. I felt so guilty.”
“Guilty for what, Clara?” I asked gently.
“For taking his settlement money and keeping quiet,” she choked out, tears shining in her eyes. “He did the exact same thing to me. He started by making me doubt my memory. He’d move my car keys, delete my work emails, and then tell me I was suffering from early-onset dementia. When I fought back, he hired men to follow me.”
“Did he record you?” I whispered.
Clara looked up, her eyes wide with lingering horror. “He had cameras hidden in the light fixtures of our apartment. He threatened to send the videos to my firm’s board of directors if I didn't surrender my equity to him.”
“Did you try to go to the police?”
“I did,” Clara said bitterly. “But his mother, Helena, paid off a private psychiatrist to write a evaluation claiming I was paranoid schizophrenic. No lawyer would touch my case. I was isolated, broke, and exhausted. So I signed the NDA, took a tiny lump sum, and fled the state.”
May you like
She reached across the table and gripped my hand tightly. Her grip was surprisingly strong.
“Don't let him break you, Emily,” Clara urged, her voice filled with fierce determination. “He’s a parasite who feeds on brilliant women until they feel like empty shells. I will void my NDA. I will stand in that courtroom right beside you.”
