Chapter 13 - The Due Date Password
My first official prenatal appointment occurred under police protection.
That sentence alone still felt absurd.
The baby was healthy.
A tiny heartbeat filled the examination room.
For weeks, my pregnancy had existed mostly as a vulnerability Derek had exploited.
For the first time, it became something else.
A future.
I cried.
Constance came with me.
I had not planned that.
She had driven me because Sarah’s meeting ran late, and when the nurse asked whether she wanted to enter, I surprised both of us by saying yes.
The heartbeat began.
Constance covered her mouth.
Later, in the parking lot, she said:
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For letting me hear my grandchild.”
I looked at her.
“You’re going to have to earn your place.”
She nodded.
“I know.”
That answer mattered.
At Harlow Shipping, recovered funds kept the company solvent long enough for restructuring.
The board appointed an interim CEO.
Not me.
I refused.
I wanted compliance, not power.
For years, Derek had assumed everyone wanted what he wanted.
Control.
He never understood that some of us wanted systems to work even when nobody received applause.
His trial approached.
Prosecutors offered a plea agreement.
Derek rejected it.
He wanted a jury.
Sarah believed it was ego.
Detective Ortiz thought it was strategy.
I knew my husband.
It was both.
His defense attacked me immediately.
They claimed I had been planning divorce.
True.
They claimed I secretly collected documents.
True.
They claimed my marriage was deteriorating.
True.
Then they suggested I could have contaminated the soup myself, expecting Derek’s mother to eat it.
That was absurd.
But trials do not require every theory to be likely.
Only possible enough to create doubt.
Then the prosecution called Paige.
She testified for nearly four hours.
About the medication pickup.
The thermos.
The instructions.
The threat after Constance collapsed.
The tracking.
On cross-examination, Derek’s attorney exposed every payment she had received.
“You owed Mr. Harlow, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“And now you’re testifying against him to save yourself?”
“I’m testifying because I helped someone who lied to me.”
“You committed identity fraud.”
“Yes.”
“You helped obtain medication.”
“Yes.”
“You tracked Mrs. Callahan.”
“Yes.”
“So why should this jury trust you?”
Paige looked toward me.
“Because Renee kept asking for evidence even when evidence hurt her.”
Then she faced the jury.
“Mr. Harlow kept asking people to trust him instead of evidence.”
The courtroom went silent.
The clip went viral by evening.
But the trial’s biggest moment came three days later.
Constance testified.
May you like
Derek looked at his mother as she took the stand.
For the first time, fear crossed his face.
