She searched through the folder.
There were copies of the supposed threat, a temporary guardianship plan, a draft request to seal Noah’s birth record, and pages describing me as an aggressive parent before I had even known I was one.
Then Emma found a printed email.
She read the sender address aloud.
One letter in the company name had been replaced with another that looked almost identical in lowercase type.
It was not my company’s domain.
Daniel moved toward the table.
“That proves nothing.
Spoofing is common.”
I placed my palm over the papers before he could take them.
“It proves the message did not come from me.”
“It proves someone disguised the address.”
“Someone who knew Emma would receive it through you.”
Emma stopped rocking Noah.
The baby made a soft complaint, and she began again automatically.
Her body knew how to protect him even while her world shifted beneath her.
“I gave you a handwritten letter for Miles,” she said to Daniel.
“Where is it?”
“I sent it.”
“How?”
“Courier.”
“Which service?”
“I would have to check.”
“You told me his assistant refused to sign for it.”
“That is what I was told.”
“By whom?”
Daniel’s patience snapped.
“Why are you interrogating me instead of the man who abandoned you?”
Noah startled.
Emma pulled him closer.
I felt my anger rise, but I kept my voice low.
“I did abandon her in one way.
I let lawyers carry words that should have come from me.
I let pride become silence.
But I did not know about Noah.”
Emma’s eyes met mine.
For the first time, doubt appeared beside the anger.
I unlocked my phone and called my company’s general counsel.
Daniel reached for the device.
“You cannot record privileged documents.”
I moved the phone out of his reach.
“I’m not recording.
I’m preserving evidence.”
When the call connected, I gave one instruction: secure every inbound message, delivery log, visitor record, and archived mailbox connected to my divorce from the date Emma filed until that night.
Nothing was to be deleted or altered.
Then I placed the phone facedown.
Daniel shook his head.
“This is intimidation.”
“No.
Intimidation is telling a pregnant woman that her husband plans to steal her child.”
“You would have used your money against her.”
“You don’t know what I would have done.”
“I know men like you.”
The answer came too quickly and too personally.
Emma heard it too.
“What does that mean?” she asked.
