I Let Her Ruin Herself Chapter 20
“I only wanted to scare you,” Taylor said immediately. “I wasn’t really trying to kill you.”
No matter how many lives she got, the first thing she would always do was blame someone else.
Her lawyer had put the sentencing records in front of her. She had supplied my schedule and the garage layout. She had personally stated the monetary and escape demands. The weapon, the text messages, the video, and her own confession were all in the case file.
Even a victim support letter couldn’t erase that.
“Adrian, I know I was wrong.”
She started to cry.
“I still have three daughters. My mom is getting old. She can’t raise them forever. You have so much—if you just gave them a little, it would be enough.”
“They have parents, and they have a grandmother,” I said. “They are not my children.”
“But you used to love me.”
“That version of me made a bad call.”
“When we were eighteen, you identified me at the hospital. You knew I wasn’t there.”
“After you were reborn, the first thing you did wasn’t go see your daughters or find a way to make things up to your mother. You broke into my company and tried to make me betray my wife.”
“When I refused, you sent a man with a knife after me.”
“Your choices always benefit you, Taylor. This time, it just didn’t work out.”
The pleading look vanished from her face.
“What right do you have to act like a victim?”
“Did Derek just decide to get me pregnant all on his own? Adrian, you paid his friend. You think I’d never figure that out?”
She had finally pieced it together.
“I paid someone to remind Derek that he was afraid you’d leave for college,” I said. “I didn’t sabotage his contraception, and I didn’t force you to keep getting pregnant.”
“You knew what he would do!”
“And you knew exactly what kind of man he was. Your parents arranged for doctors to help you, and you threatened them with suicide.”
“Those decisions were yours and Derek’s.”
Taylor stared at the screen.
“If you won’t help me, I’ll put everything you did online.”
“That’s your right.”
I hung up.
Just before the image cut out, I saw her slam her hand on the table on her side of the screen.
A week later, a public letter of accusation, written in Taylor’s voice, appeared online.