Consequences

hospital that is willing to accept you. I will pay the expenses so that the taxpayers are not responsible for your lack of judgment.”
    “I have been here for over a week. I’ve been questioned over and over. I haven’t divulged any private information. I have followed all the rules. The only thing I did against your rules is drive a car. That is it!”
    “This plea will avoid a trial. It is understandable. You came from a modest background. The life we shared had pressures and responsibilities, with entertaining, charities, and reporters, it is understandable. You just couldn’t handle it.” Claire sat down, feeling increasingly ill. Tony walked over to her, bending down to maintain eye contact. “I should have recognized the signs. Perhaps I was too busy with work. When you canceled your charity obligations recently, I should have realized how overwhelmed you felt.” Claire listened as he spoke. It was his expression, a grin, one she recalled from a masquerade dinner almost two years ago that spoke louder than his words. “You wanted out, and in a moment of weakness—no, in a moment of insanity, you decided that the only way out was to try to kill me.” She watched him. This was a prepared speech. Oh my god! “I am only thankful you underestimated the amount of poison needed or you may have succeeded.”
    The confusion in Claire’s mind began to dissipate, the fog cleared, and she could see Tony, his expression, and meaning as he spoke. “And if you had succeeded, I wouldn’t be here to help you now.” She suddenly realized that he was done with her. It was like the workers in Pennsylvania, she no longer mattered. He didn’t need her anymore! Tony pulled a chair to face Claire. “Aren’t you glad I am able to help you?” The bewilderment turned to the realization. He wasn’t going to help her. The reality hit her hard, not a physical slap, but it might as well have been. Instead of overwhelming sadness, two years of obedience and submission caused an overpowering rush of hostility. “And, Claire, I hear the rooms at the mental facility are larger than the cells at the federal penitentiary.” His grin broadened.
    She straightened her neck and met his eyes. No longer did tears flow, instead her eyes sparked with anger. “Yes, Tony, I am so thankful. Would you like me to show you how thankful I am?” Her insincerity and sudden animosity came through loud and clear.
    Tony stood, straightened his jacket. “Utilize the time you have to think this over. Don’t make another poor impulsive decision. This is your best offer.” He knocked on the door. “Goodbye, Claire.”
    She didn’t respond. The attorneys reentered the room. Claire had new resolve. If he was planning to leave her, she was going to start talking. Mr. Evergreen spoke. “Mr. Task, if your client plans to plead insanity the prosecution will need psychological evaluations.”
    “Mr. Evergreen, I do not plan to plead insanity.” Everyone turned to Claire, the last five days she’d hardly spoken, but she continued in a determined tone that none of them had heard before. “I can assure you I am not the person that is insane, although I have cause. I am innocent. Now if you will excuse me again, I need to speak to my counsel.”
    She had entered this preexamination willing to sit passively and wait for Tony to rescue her. Turning to Jane, the only counsel willing to confront her husband, she said, “Ms. Allyson, if we could postpone this preexamination, I believe I have some evidence to share with you and Mr. Task.”

 
Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life. Define yourself.
—Harvey Fierstein
     Chapter 49
    Three days was all they had to prepare for the new preexamination. Claire spent hours with her attorneys uncompartmentalizing everything. She recounted everything she could remember from the last twenty-two months. Tony wouldn’t approve. Nonetheless, she was brutally honest, recounting details that she’d tried to suppress. She explained the initial contact and contract. She said she thought the date rape drug Rohypnol was used to get her to Iowa because she couldn’t remember traveling from Atlanta. This recount could have been demoralizing, but somehow it proved therapeutic, a catharsis.
    She described the respected, adored businessman Anthony Rawlings as a cruel, vindictive, masochistic, controlling human being. She did leave their home in