Chapter 10: The Reckoning Begins
Evan was arrested the next morning.
The police arrived at his house at 6:40 a.m. and took him into custody. Denise was arrested at her apartment two hours later. Both were charged with arson, insurance fraud, and embezzlement of employee pension funds.
I watched the news coverage from my apartment. They showed Evan being led out of his house in handcuffs, his head down. The image felt surreal.
This was the man I had once loved. The man I had married. The man whose child I was carrying.
And now he was being arrested for trying to destroy everything my father had built.
Margaret called me shortly after.
“It’s official,” she said. “They’ve been charged. Bail is going to be high, especially for Evan.”
I was quiet for a moment.
“What happens now?” I asked.
“Now,” Margaret replied, “we prepare for war. Because even though they’ve been charged, their family still has resources. They’re going to fight this with everything they have.”
I looked out the window at the city.
“I know,” I said. “But so will I.”
That night, I stood in front of the mirror in my bathroom and looked at myself for a long time.
I was no longer the woman who had stayed quiet while her husband slowly tried to take everything from her. I was no longer the woman who had been gaslit into doubting her own reality.
I was Allison Bennett.
A doctor. A daughter. And soon, a mother.
And I was done being afraid.
Whatever came next, I was ready.
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Because this time, I wasn’t fighting to survive.
I was fighting to win.
