PART 2:
Sarah’s words hung in the air like a thunderstorm that hadn’t yet broken.
“What do you mean he already knew?” I asked, my voice barely more than a whisper.
She sat down slowly, still holding Matthew tightly against her chest, as if she wanted to protect him from something we couldn’t yet see.
“Emily… Mark didn’t just know about your pregnancy,” she said. “He was having you watched.”
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
“The photos in the folder… they weren’t a coincidence. He paid someone to follow you. I saw the payments—small amounts, regularly, to a private number. And there were notes. Dates. Your routine.
Your doctor’s appointments.”
I shook my head, trying to make sense of it.
“It doesn’t make sense… why would he do that?”
Sarah’s eyes hardened.
“Because he was afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“Of responsibility. Of his image. Of everything he had built—his job, his reputation, his ‘perfect’ family.” She laughed bitterly. “You and Matthew don’t fit into that picture.”
I felt anger and fear move through my body like ice water.
“But… the money? That transfer in my name?”
Sarah took a deep breath.
“He was probably trying to create a paper trail—to be able to say later that he helped you. A sort of protection for himself.”
I put my hands over my face.
“He monitored my life like… like a project.”
Matthew started to stir softly, his little hand grabbing Sarah’s shirt. She soothed him gently, and for a moment, everything went quiet.
Then she looked at me again.
“There is something else.”
My heart started beating faster.
“What now?”
“I found a contract,” she said, pulling the last document from the folder. “It wasn’t signed yet. But it was clear what he was planning.”
I took the paper with trembling hands.
It was an agreement.
Full of legal jargon.
Cold. Calculating.
In simple words:
He wanted me to stay quiet.