Chapter 10 - Amanda’s Version of Love
Daniel confronted Amanda only once more before formal charges.
Not alone.
Ruiz and attorneys remained behind observation glass.
Amanda sat across a table.
Daniel placed a photograph of Sophie between them.
Amanda looked at it.
“She’s getting bigger.”
“Rachel’s home.”
Amanda closed her eyes.
“I heard.”
“You told her Sophie was dead.”
“Yes.”
“You later told her Sophie was alive.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Amanda struggled.
“I couldn’t keep doing it.”
“But you did keep doing it.”
“I know.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“I need you to explain something.”
Amanda waited.
“When did Victor tell you to get close to me?”
“Before the crash.”
“How long before?”
“A month.”
“So the gala where we supposedly met…”
“Was arranged.”
Daniel nodded.
“I figured.”
Amanda started crying.
“But I didn’t approach you then.”
Daniel frowned.
“What?”
“You weren’t ready.”
“Ready?”
“You looked…”
She searched.
“Destroyed.”
He laughed bitterly.
“My wife had died.”
“I know.”
“You helped make that happen.”
Amanda looked down.
“I couldn’t.”
“What?”
“I couldn’t walk up to you while Sophie was still tiny.”
Daniel stared.
“So Victor waited?”
“Yes.”
“How noble.”
Amanda accepted the cruelty.
“Months later he pressured me again.”
“You came to the charity gala.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know I’d be there?”
“Yes.”
“Everything you said?”
“Prepared.”
Daniel felt sick despite already knowing.
“My favorite restaurant?”
“Rachel’s old social media.”
“The book you said you loved?”
“You mentioned it in an interview.”
“The story about losing your fiancé?”
“False.”
Daniel leaned back.
He had loved a constructed mirror.
Then Amanda whispered,
“But after that night, some things weren’t prepared.”
Daniel looked at her.
“I liked you.”
“No.”
“I did.”
“You liked succeeding.”
“At first maybe.”
She cried.
“Then Sophie got sick that winter.”
Daniel remembered.
Ear infection.
Amanda stayed all night.
Sophie slept on her chest.
Daniel had fallen in love with her partly that night.
Amanda continued.
“I knew what I was doing was monstrous.”
“So you stopped?”
“No.”
“Then the knowledge is useless.”
“I tried to tell Victor.”
“Not me.”
“No.”
“Not Rachel.”
“No.”
“Victor.”
Amanda nodded.
Daniel understood.
She still sought permission from the man controlling her.
Amanda whispered,
“He said if I left, he would have Rachel transferred somewhere nobody would find her.”
Daniel’s expression hardened.
“So you stayed.”
“Yes.”
“And decided marrying me was somehow protecting her?”
Amanda looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
Daniel almost laughed.
That was the logic of coercive systems.
Each compromise justified by preventing something worse.
Until the victim became an accomplice.
He pointed at Sophie’s photograph.
“Then the pendant.”
Amanda’s face collapsed.
“I saw her holding it.”
“What did you think?”
“That Victor would know.”
“So you grabbed her hair.”
Amanda cried.
“I panicked.”
“And slapped her.”
“Yes.”
“That is the moment you lost the right to tell me this was love.”
Amanda looked at him.
“I know.”
Daniel believed she finally did.
Not because she stopped crying.
Because she stopped defending herself.
He stood.
Amanda whispered,
“Daniel.”
He turned.
“Rachel asked me something once.”
He waited.
“She asked if you still sang to Sophie at night.”
Daniel’s throat tightened.
“What did you say?”
“Yes.
“She smiled.”
Amanda wiped her face.
“She said, ‘Then they’re okay.’”
Daniel looked away.
Rachel had used scraps of information to survive.
Amanda had possessed the power to give more.
She chose less.
He left.
Victor Hale was arrested the following morning.
Not dramatically.
At his attorney’s office.
Charges included fraud, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, identity crimes, conspiracy, controlled substance violations, obstruction, and eventually homicide connected to Melissa Grant.
Amanda was charged too.
Her cooperation reduced nothing about the assault on Sophie.
Daniel insisted on that.
Ruiz agreed.
May you like
Victimization explained Amanda’s pathway.
It did not erase the toddler’s bruised cheek.
