Chapter 6 - The Woman Pretending to Be Me
Vanessa had not only slept with my husband.
She had been helping him manufacture a version of me that did not exist.
The intake notes were worse than I expected.
Patient believes husband may be unfaithful despite lack of evidence.
Patient displays fixation on perceived betrayal.
Patient has threatened to leave residence while pregnant and may act irrationally if confronted.
I read the sentences twice.
Then I started laughing.
Maya looked alarmed.
"Emily?"
"They wrote the future first."
Everyone went quiet.
I pointed at the page.
"Don't you see? They wrote this before I found the messages. They were preparing to say I was paranoid about an affair that was actually happening. They wrote that I might leave the house while pregnant. Then when I tried to leave, Vanessa stopped me."
Detective Ortiz leaned closer.
"And after the fall, Ryan immediately described you as hysterical."
"Exactly."
Claire closed the folder.
"This is no longer just a divorce strategy. Forging medical documents can create criminal exposure."
The hospital room door opened.
A nurse stepped in with a sealed evidence bag.
"Detective? This was delivered downstairs for Ms. Bennett. Security screened it."
Inside was a small black flash drive.
No note.
No name.
Ortiz took custody of it.
"Nobody plugs this into anything personal. We'll have it examined."
Two hours later, she returned with a department laptop that was not connected to the hospital network.
The drive contained six video files.
The first showed my front porch.
The second showed our kitchen.
The third showed Ryan's home office.
My pulse climbed.
"Play the porch footage," I said.
Ortiz clicked.
There I was, walking toward the front door with my overnight bag.
Vanessa came after me.
The audio was faint but clear enough.
"Move," I heard myself say.
"You need to calm down."
"Get out of my way."
We moved onto the porch.
Vanessa followed.
I took one step down.
She reached out.
Her palm hit my shoulder.
My body disappeared from the frame.
Maya covered her mouth.
No one spoke.
Then Ryan came through the door.
The camera recorded him looking at me on the ground.
Recorded him looking at Vanessa.
Recorded him walking past me.
"Are you okay?" he asked her.
My eyes burned.
Ortiz stopped the video.
"That's enough for the assault investigation."
"No," I said. "Play the office file."
She hesitated, then opened it.
The timestamp was from four days before the fall.
Ryan stood beside his desk with Vanessa and a man I recognized from our bank.
Ryan slid a document across the table.
"Once she signs the incapacity acknowledgment," he said, "we can move everything without her approval."
Vanessa smiled.
"And if she refuses?"
May you like
Ryan's answer was quiet.
"Then we make sure refusing doesn't matter."
