The room went silent. Every officer in it stopped moving.

I kissed the top of my daughter’s head, stood up with her still in my arms, and turned to Lieutenant Norman.

“I want every recording device in this house seized and preserved,” I said. “Every phone, every tablet, every account, every message, into evidence. There will be no private family settlement.

There will be no quiet divorce. And there will be no public apology.”

Samantha scoffed from the fireplace. “You think you can destroy our lives over a practical joke?”

I finally looked at the woman I’d been married to for nearly ten years.