She shifts slightly, folding her arms across her chest. “Before she was attacked the first time, I tried to pull her away from him. He gave me a bad feeling, the kind that doesn’t come with proof. I had people run checks on him, had him followed. But nothing came back. He was clean. No priors, no shady movements, nothing I could use.”
Her jaw clenches. “She found out I had him followed. She lost it. We argued. I told her I didn’t trust him. She told me I didn’t trust her judgment. And that was it. We fell out. I couldn’t go back while she was with him. She made it clear.”
“So you just left her,” I say. The words land harder than I expect.
Charlotte turns her head and stares at the wall like she’s trying to focus on anything but me. “No. I didn’t leave her. I had someone checking on her
