“Skylar, please,” he said, stepping forward with tears in his eyes. “You’re letting a greedy lawyer fill your head with nonsense. We’re married. We can easily sort this out at home.”

He used his softest tone like bait, as if he could reach some old version of her that still wanted to believe him. Skylar looked at him with tight skin and a tired soul.

“Derek, you don’t want to fix what you broke,” she told him flatly. “You just want me to hide it again.”

Sandra stepped in before he could answer, waving the security guards over immediately. Court staff logged the breach of protocol—and that small scene, which once would have ended with Skylar trembling in a bathroom, was now officially recorded in her case file.

The months that followed were a mix of legal paperwork, lingering fear, and shocking discoveries. Skylar returned to her apartment accompanied by two police officers and a locksmith.

She changed the locks, removed Derek’s name from the mailbox, took his shirts from a closet that still smelled of his expensive cologne, and handed them over through her lawyer.