Page 105 of The Right to Remain

“Very. They asked if I could get her to change it back.”

“What did you tell them?”

“I said maybe I could. But it would cost them another two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”

Jack took a breath. The Pollards were not a perfect couple, but no one deserved to be treated that way.

The prosecutor continued. “Did they pay you the money?”

“They did.”

“Were you able to persuade Elle to change her mind?”

“Yeah.”

“How?”

The witness glanced in Jack’s direction, and they made brief eye contact. She seemed to be enjoying the fact that Jack was hearing all of this for the first time from her and not from his client.

“I told Elle if she went through with the adoption, I would pay for all the treatments she wanted.”

Serena shot another glance in Jack’s direction, as if to say,How do you like that, counselor?

“By treatments, do you mean gender treatment?” asked the prosecutor.

“Yeah. That shit’s expensive. Hormones. Surgeries. Meds. Since she was fifteen years old, my daughter was threatening to run off to Mexico and have it done by some quack on the cheap. I always fought her, until we cut this deal in the hospital. Honestly, I never thought she’d go through with it, even after we had the money. Obviously, I was wrong.”

“Very wrong,” said the prosecutor. “Now I want to move forward in time. After Elle became Elliott, did the two of you ever discuss the decision to go through with the adoption?”

“Oh, yeah. That was interesting.”

Jack took a breath.Interesting.Mass murder was “interesting.” Adultery was “interesting.” It was one of those words that could lead to just about anything.

“Tell us about that,” said the prosecutor.

“Elle—I mean Elliott—came to see me. We hadn’t spoken to each other in probably five years.”

“Why did Elliott come to see you?”

“She—sorry, he—wanted to get something off his chest.”

“What?”

“Well, a lot of hurtful things were said. But what it all came down to was that he would never forgive me for making him give up her—his—baby for adoption.”

“Because he could never have another baby? Is that right?”

“Objection,” said Jack. “The witness is not a mind reader.”

There was no judge to rule on his objections, but Jack needed to preserve them for the record if the video recording was to be used at trial.

“I suppose so,” said Serena.

“Did Elliott tell you anything else?”

“Yeah.”

“What?”