“Why help me?” he asked.
Connor answered honestly.
“Because I know who he really is. And because what he did to you… if I can stop it forever, I will.”
Rachel, Grace’s best friend, arrived shortly after. Dr. Matthews promised to testify. Detective Laura Friedman began gathering evidence.
For the first time in years, Grace was not alone.
The trial became national news.
The story horrified the public: a husband locking his pregnant wife in a freezer, twins born in impossible conditions, a miraculous survival.
But Derek tried to control the narrative even from prison.
His lawyers called it a misunderstanding.
Her mother said that Grace was unstable.
The media debated whether he was exaggerating.
Grace knew the pattern.
Psychological manipulation. Defamation. Rewriting of reality.
But this time I had proof.
Security cameras showed Derek entering the freezer with Grace and leaving alone.
The access card records placed him there.
His financial records revealed a gambling debt of $400,000 and a $2 million life insurance policy that he had recently extended.
A subsequent investigation showed that he had researched death by freezing timescales, divorce costs, and several other murder scenarios.
Killing Grace had been cheaper than divorcing her.
Connor’s documents on Derek’s past fraud revealed what everyone needed to see: this wasn’t a mistake. It was a pattern.
Grace testified.
