He Watched Me Freeze Now He Begs For My Return Chapter 20
Attached to the email was a formal request from the DA’s office.
Robert was in prison, but the matter of Elaine’s false testimony and obstruction of justice had not yet been resolved.
Her lawyer had recently claimed that the video shown at the gala had been maliciously edited, arguing that the full conversation did not prove she knew the truth. According to them, the confession had been nothing more than “exaggerated pillow talk,” and I had deliberately clipped out fragments to retaliate against my parents.
A joke. Again.
The moment consequences were theirs to bear, every act of malice became something not to be taken seriously.
At the end of the email, my lawyer asked:
“Do you consent to submitting all original files from the encrypted hard drive?”
I went into my study and took the drive from a locked drawer.
Before leaving Denver, I had downloaded every file from the family cloud. I had never altered the file names, upload dates, or raw footage. Only a fraction had played at the gala. The rest had remained sealed.
I had once used it as a threat to make my parents leave me alone, but I had never actually turned it over.
Back then, all I wanted was for them to stay out of my life.
Now, Elaine had pushed the door open herself.
My phone buzzed on the desk.
A text from an unknown number.
“Nora, your mother is begging you. Your father is already in prison. Do you really want to send me there, too?”
Another message came right after.
“Those videos are family property. If you hand them over, you’ll destroy the last bit of family we have left.”
I didn’t reply.
She had never once asked how much family I had left in me after being locked in a basement, driven to collapse by a fake breakup, and abandoned in a blizzard.
I forwarded the texts to my lawyer, then signed the authorization.
“Submit everything.”
After I hit send, the room fell quiet again.
Snow gathered on the windowsill, layering it in white.
This time, I didn’t cover for anyone.
I didn’t clean up after anyone, either.
I only handed over what they themselves had recorded to the people who were meant to see it.