Over a million followers, and a new video almost every day.
The same script every time: the devoted husband, the cherished wife.
She'd built herself a leading-lady persona, coaching her audience on how to fight back against abuse and find true love.
Online, she spared no effort showing the world how happy she was now.
And never once mentioned the other woman whose husband she'd stolen.
I'd barely set my phone down
when a woman shoved my office door open without knocking.
Daphne Dickerson.
Even after ten years, I recognized her in a heartbeat.
Her long hair was styled into careful waves, and she wore an expensive tweed suit.
A bright diamond ring caught the light on her finger.
The woman who'd cowered behind my husband ten years ago, trembling, was gone.
In her place stood a polished, confident creature.
She looked at me.
One look, and she'd sized me up from head to toe.
"Ms. Simmons, I'm not going to dance around it."
She dropped a thick canvas bag on my desk.
Square and solid. Two hundred thousand, by the look of it.
"Everything has a price."
"If it doesn't work, the price just wasn't high enough."
Her long, slim fingers tapped lightly against the desk.
Fair, smooth, not a single dry line.
Nothing like my hands.
Those years of side jobs had left their mark.
Chilblains that flared up again and again, calluses layered over calluses, and a scar where a chemical had eaten into the skin.
I pushed the bag back across the desk.
"Not everything can be fixed with money."
"I'm accountable for my work. I only answer to evidence."
She shifted her weight and set her phone on the desk.
I saw the screen light up.
She was recording.
Daphne's displeasure showed plainly. She kept her tone clamped down as she asked,
"You say my documents don't qualify. The least you can do is tell me why."
I didn't move. My voice stayed perfectly even.
"I don't need a reason."
"My decision is lawful and by the book. I don't owe you an explanation."
She crossed her arms and stared at me, arrogant.
Then she let out a cold little laugh.
"I get it now."
"There are plenty of people like you online."
Her tone sharpened with every word.
"Your own marriage is miserable, so you resent every woman younger and prettier than you."
"I know exactly what you are. Jealous. Bitter about anyone with money."
"So you use what little power you've got to make life as hard as possible for people."
"It's the same sickness with all you old, broke, middle-aged women."
She pointed at me, the threat vicious now.
"I have millions of followers across every platform."
"One video, and you lose your job."
"Don't believe me? Try me."
I felt no anger. No humiliation either.
Just how absurd it all was.
Ten years ago, my mother was gravely ill.
To keep from setting her off, I'd swallowed everything and begged Jude Delgado not to leave.
He'd pushed me away and said,
"Daphne isn't like you."
"She's too kind, too fragile. She can't survive without me."
But this woman in front of me, all teeth and pressure,
where was the kindness, the fragility?
Soft and meek was only the tool she used to handle a man.
This sharp-tongued, spiteful version was the real face.
I didn't engage. I picked up the intercom on my desk.
"Ms. Dickerson, are you leaving on your own, or do I call security to escort you out?"
A young male colleague pushed the door open right on cue and gestured toward the exit.
Daphne fixed her eyes on me.
Slowly, a flicker of confusion crossed that well-maintained face.
"Have we met somewhere before?"
