Chapter 2 - The Woman in the Minivan
The woman’s name was Marlene Shaw.
She was fifty-one, recently widowed, and driving from Arizona to visit her son in Kansas City. She listened without interrupting while I explained that my husband had taken my belongings and abandoned me for an online prank.
“Do you want me to call the police?” she asked.
“Not yet.”
“You’re sure?”
“I need to think before they turn this into another performance.”
Marlene bought me water, a sandwich, and a pair of inexpensive flip-flops. Then she drove me to a small motel sixty miles away.
During the ride, she never asked why I had stayed with Kyle for so long.
She asked what I needed next.
That difference made me trust her.
I used the motel phone to call Rachel Boone, the attorney who had incorporated the media company behind Kyle’s channel.
Kyle called it his company.
Legally, it was ours.
I had paid for the first cameras with money my grandmother left me. I edited the early videos, negotiated the sponsorships, and registered the company because Kyle said paperwork ruined his creativity.
Rachel still had the original records.
“What happened?” she asked.
“They abandoned me at a gas station and filmed it.”
“Are you safe?”
“Yes.”
“Do you want to return?”
I looked through the motel window at Marlene waiting beside the minivan.
“No.”
Rachel became silent.
Then she asked the question no one else had.
“Do you want them to know where you are?”
“No.”
I authorized her to freeze every company account requiring my approval, preserve the video files, and begin divorce proceedings.
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Kyle believed he had abandoned a helpless wife.
He had actually abandoned the majority owner of the business paying his bills.
