“He’s not a good person. I know he had to have something to do with this. He was abusive. He threatened her. He hurt her, and I think he knew about us—” he says in a fury.

I cut him off. “Why do you think he knew about you and Kelly? Did you ever have any interactions with him?”

“Because of the texts from that night. He threatened her. He said he knew she was lying. He said he would hurt her.”

I jot down a few notes about Scott.

“If he threatened Kelly, that could help us with reasonable doubt and could give us a person to point the finger at. An abusive husband is very fitting. I’ve seen it a hundred times in my cases. If he had the means and the opportunity, it’s an easy win,” I say.

Adam’s eyes light up. “Really?”

“Yes, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. That’s one avenue we can pursue… now, did you ever meet Scott?”

“No—but I didn’t have to to know what type of man he was.” Adam clenches his jaw and tightens his eyes.

“And what type of man is that?” I bite at the end of my pen.

“A bad one.”

“And what does that make you?” My eyes narrow.

Adam’s expression goes from pure anger to one of guilt.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.” I pause for a moment glancing down at my notes and then back at him. “This is a total conflict of interest. I may be the best chance you have of getting out of this, but I don’t know if I can remove the pain and anger I’m feeling from this case.”

“Please,” he says. His eyes beg me to help.

I chew on the end of my pen cap. I know we had our issues, every marriage does—but to lie to me for the past sixteen months. Yes, I was inattentive, and yes, I wasn’t exactly the loving wife, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t love him and that doesn’t mean I never stopped loving him. Even now, at this moment I love him. I hate him, but I love him. Everything I was doing, I was doing for us. I was doing it for our future. Every night I spent at the office was for us so we could have the life we’ve always dreamed of. If his writing career wouldn’t have tapered off right when it started, maybe I wouldn’t have had to work so hard for the both of us.