“Play it from the beginning,” I said.
My lawyer moved the cursor back to the moment Lauren entered our house nine days before the dinner at Hawthorne Prime.
The recording had no dramatic quality to it.
No ominous music.
No perfect camera angle.
Just the ordinary view from the security camera covering the entryway and part of the adjoining living room.
Lauren walked in carrying her handbag.
She glanced toward the stairs and stepped aside.
Ethan entered behind her.
Seeing him inside my house affected me differently than seeing his hand on her waist outside the restaurant.
At Hawthorne Prime, I could still tell myself I had arrived at the worst possible moment and misunderstood something.
There was no misunderstanding this.
My lawyer raised the volume.
Ethan’s voice came through first.
“You keep worrying about how he’ll take it.”
Lauren answered from somewhere just beyond the edge of the camera.
“You didn’t see him when the company was almost lost.
Daniel gets quiet when he’s angry.”
Ethan laughed.
“Quiet isn’t useful.”
My lawyer stopped the video.
Neither of us spoke.
Then she looked at me.
“You said he deliberately approached your car?”
“Yes.”
“And spoke to you first?”
“Yes.”
“What exactly did he say?”
I repeated it.
“Thanks for not minding our date.”
She wrote the sentence down word for word.
Then she restarted the recording.
Lauren came back into view.
She was standing near the end of the hallway with her arms folded.
“I don’t want some huge scene,” she said.
Ethan answered, “You don’t need huge.
You need memorable.”
I felt something tighten behind my ribs.
Lauren lowered her voice.
“He’s not violent.”
“I didn’t say violent.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“I’m saying people believe what they see.
If he loses his temper in public, that tells a story.”
The room seemed to become very still.
My lawyer paused the recording again.
This time she didn’t look at me immediately.
She rewound ten seconds and listened once more.
Then she said, “Daniel, whatever you do next, do not contact Ethan.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“And don’t accuse Lauren of setting you up.”
I stared at the frozen image on the screen.
“Isn’t that what I’m hearing?”
“You’re hearing a conversation.
We preserve it.
We investigate the context.
