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“Mina, did you go to Corrine Egan’s house the night before last?”

Mark’s face was hard as he stared at me.

“Did she call you?” I asked. “What did she say?”

“I’d rather you told me your side of it first,” Roy said.

“I’d like to hear it too,” Mark said.

It dawned on me then that Roy had probably told Mark what I’d shared with him the other night on his doorstep. Had he also shown him the pictures of Lock’s indiscretions?

“I don’t know what this is. But, yes. I went to see her. Roy, you know exactly why.”

“And I told you specifically not to do that,” he barked. “I thought I made that pretty clear. And I thought you had enough common sense to do what I said.”

“Excuse me?” I said, rising. “Whatever she told you⁠—”

“You know,” Roy said. “It almost doesn’t matter what she said. What matters is what you did. And what she has proof of.”

The room started to spin. What did she have proof of?

“Mina,” Mark said. “I think maybe you should have your own lawyer for this.”

“What? Am I under suspicion of something?”

Roy had a small tablet. He opened the camera roll and turned it so I could see the screen. He pressed play on a video. It was Corrine’s interior doorway at her apartment. The playback only lasted about a minute. The camera was placed behind me and slightly above my left shoulder. I hadn’t even noticed it was there. There was no sound, but both my and Corrine’s body language was pretty easy to interpret. I saw the moment she struck me in the chest. Then I pushed her back. Roy froze the recording.

“She says you assaulted her,” Roy said. “She said you stalked her first. Waited outside the bar where she works and followed her up after she clocked out. She says you threatened to kill her.”

I looked from Roy to Mark. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“You have the video,” I said. “She’s saying I threatened to kill her? I didn’t. I told her to stay away from me.”

In the back of my mind, the lawyer in me was shouting at me to shut up. Stop talking. Say nothing more. Mark was right. This was an interrogation, and I owed Roy no answers. At the same time, Roy was my friend. Mark was my boss. They knew me. Corrine’s lies were so blatant and obvious.

“You weren’t going to do anything,” I said. “I told you point blank that woman is trying to ruin my life. I think she’s in some sort of mental health crisis and she needs help. I told you what she did. The paint cans. The dove. I didn’t assault her. She hit me in the chest and I pushed her away.”

Roy played the video again. Reluctantly, I watched it. The second time through, I realized the problem. I knew what had happened on that doorstep. I knew Corrine had actually assaulted me. But the angle of the camera didn’t show it. You could only see my back. Just before I pushed Corrine off me, my body obstructed hers. I couldn’t believe it. She told Roy I had assaulted her. Again, the lawyer part of my brain kicked in. If I were showing this recording at a trial, I might have thought it was a slam dunk for the prosecution.

“This doesn’t tell the whole story,” I said, shoving the tablet back at him. “I’m telling you, Corrine was the first aggressor. She’s lying to you about what happened. Twisting it so it looks like I did something wrong. I didn’t. Everything I’ve been telling you is true. There’s something wrong with her. She’s trying to ruin my life. The paint, killing the dove, the note she wrote, her breaking into my home.”

“She denies all of it,” Roy said.

“You think I’m making it up? Imagining it? Roy? Mark? Does that sound like something I’d ever do?”

“Mina, look,” Mark said, sliding off the side of his desk. “You’ve been under a lot of strain. I know things have been difficult for you at home. I didn’t want to pry or put myself in the middle of your marriage. Believe me, I wouldn’t. But Lock reached out to me last night.”

My heart thumped behind my breastbone. “He what?”

“He expressed some concerns. He said you’ve been behaving erratically. He said the two of you have been having trouble. He said… I hate to even bring this up. But he said you’ve been taking some new medication that might affect your mood.”

Anger erupted inside me. “He said what? He called you? You talked to Lock?”

“He texted me,” Mark said.

“Show me,” I demanded. “I want to see exactly what he said.”

For three days, I’d had no communication with Lock.