Total pages in book: 187
Estimated words: 174623 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 873(@200wpm)___ 698(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 174623 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 873(@200wpm)___ 698(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
"Tell me," he demands once it's closed, his eyes locked on Max.
I didn't miss the quick exchange they had earlier, and I knew whatever Max found wasn't going to be a typical domestic abuse charge in her past, not that there should ever be anything typical about domestic abuse on any level.
"It's fucking bad," Max says.
I shift my position when Kincaid looks up at the massive television on the wall so I can see what Max is presenting.
The headlines flash, and the information given is something out of a horror story meant for a movie, not something someone has lived through in real time.
"The ex-husband, Graham Whitmore, is a rich asshole with generations of East Coast family money," Max says. "Stabbed her twice, once in the stomach and once in the shoulder. She was pregnant with twins. They didn't make it."
I clench my fists under the table, my short fingernails digging into my palms.
I knew from watching her that she had been victimized, but I was hoping it was a stranger. Not that it's okay to be hurt by someone you don't know, but trauma seems to cling to a person when they've been hurt by someone who was supposed to love them, especially someone who vowed to protect them always.
"From what I can gather from court transcripts," Max continues. "His defense was that he didn't know she was pregnant, and her lie of omission caused the results. He claims he never would've been violent had he known about the babies."
"Such bullshit," Shadow mutters.
The court excluded the babies' deaths from the punishment because they did not consider them viable. They also ruled in a different hearing that since the hospital found both heartbeats prior to her surgeries, they couldn't exactly pinpoint the stabbing to fetal demise. The ambiguity of it was critical and won out in this case."
Silence fills the room. The link is right there. If she had a healthy pregnancy up to that point, then it's blatantly fucking clear that, at minimum, the trauma of being stabbed caused the deaths.
"People with fucking money get away with more shit than they ever should," Kincaid says as he sits back down, eyes still turned toward the television.
"And to add to how fucked up this all is," Max says. "The media turned on her. The story transformed from considering her a victim to making her look like a monster who was going to steal this guy's babies. He stabbed her when she tried to leave him. She had a hard time testifying in the bail hearing, and that's when things changed with the case."
"Always the victim's fault." Shadow scoffs.
"It was considered a crime of passion. He pled down to attempted voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault causing great bodily injury, and felony domestic violence. The fetal homicide charges were dropped as part of the plea deal," Max explains. "He got fourteen years total. Eight years for count one, four years for count two with the aggravated enhancement, and two years for the domestic assault charge. The only good thing I can see that the judge did was a partial concurrent sentencing, but he's already out."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Kincaid snaps.
That must be why she's running. If she knows the guy is out of prison, then her fear must have multiplied the day he was released.
"He served eight years and seven months. He's almost halfway through his three-year parole sentence," Max adds.
"When did she leave her hometown?" Shadow asks.
"The last action I saw on credit cards was the day of his sentencing," Max says.
"She's been running ever since?" Kincaid asks.
"From the looks of it," Max answers. "She mentioned working in eight different women's shelters, but the city count I've been able to find tracing her is higher. She doesn't seem to stay in one place more than thirteen to sixteen months tops."
"She has to be exhausted," Shadow mutters. "Poor woman."
"Makes me wonder if she even knows that he's been released on parole," Kincaid says.
"She may not," Max says. "If she's worried about a virtual footprint and doesn't want even her alias in a database with the court system, she may not have looked him up since she initially left."
"How hard would it be for him to find her?" Shadow asks.
"What makes you think he hasn't already?" I growl.
"She emailed the director at her last job, which was in Junction City, Kansas, to quit her job. She has never left a job without sending some kind of notice. I imagine she does that so no one raises red flags at her disappearance."
"Smart," Kincaid praises.
"But," Max continues. "She left in a hurry. It's possible he located her, but I had to do some deep digging to track her over the years, accessing databases most people wouldn't have access to."
"But his family has the money to hire someone who could track her the same way you did," Kincaid says, and his words drop like a bomb in the middle of the room.