He Defended Her, He Said I Deserved It novel · Chapter 6 of 32

Chapter 6: Filed

I sat on the tailgate with the book in my lap until the pizza went cold.

Then I took out my phone and called my husband for the first time since I'd slapped him.

It rang four times.

"Lainie." Soft. Relieved. Like I'd finally come to my senses. "Where are you?"

"I read the book," I said. "All twenty-seven of them."

Silence.

"Whatever you think you found, it's out of context."

"You didn't ask what I found."

"He looked at you on Friday like you were his best man."

"Clients are often grateful. That's not a conspiracy, it's a practice." His voice went smooth. "Where are you sleeping?"

I hung up.

Ike didn't ask what he'd said. He just started loading the crates back into the truck.

Nettie carried the smallest book by herself, holding it against her chest with both arms.

"I'll be careful," she said. "It's evidence."

On Monday morning Darla filed the lawsuit.

She did it at the clerk's window at eight thirty, like anyone.

Then she walked out onto the courthouse steps at nine, where she'd told every station and paper in Richmond to be.

I knew every camera on those steps.

I knew the reporters. I knew the photographers by their shoes. I'd drunk bad coffee with all of them at a hundred lunch breaks.

Now they were pointing the lenses at me.

"Sugar," Darla said under her breath, "you look like you're about to throw up."

"I'm always on the other side of this."

"Then draw them in your head and get on with it."

She stood at the top of the steps in her pantsuit and her cardigan and held up a stack of paper.

"This morning, on behalf of Lainie Shore, I filed suit in this courthouse against Kerri Gaskill and against the man who pleaded guilty here on Friday to attacking her."

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