PART 3: The Real Contract
I took a step back from the table, my hands shaking violently.
“If she knew you were innocent… why did she hire me?”
“Because my family is paranoid,” Jonah explained, leaning back in his chair.
“They knew that if I sat in a cell for twelve years with nothing to lose, I would eventually break and give the federal prosecutors everything I had hidden.”
“So my mother looked for someone vulnerable. Someone who needed money so desperately she wouldn’t ask questions.”
He pointed a finger at the black box resting between us.
“The monthly payments weren’t a stipend, Maya. They were a legal transaction.”
“Under state law, spouses cannot be compelled to testify against each other regarding confidential communications made during the marriage.”
“By marrying you off to me, my family bought spousal privilege.”
“They assumed that if I ever tried to pass evidence to someone on the outside, I would trust my new wife.”
“And as my wife, anything you held, saw, or passed along for me would be tied up in legal immunity and dragged through years of court battles before it could ever touch them.”
Tears blurred my vision as the sheer weight of his words hit me.
“I was just… a legal shield to them?” I breathed. “A tool?”
“To them? Yes,” Jonah said, his tone dropping an octave.
“They thought they were setting a trap for both of us.”
“They thought you were just a hungry girl raising her brother, easy to control, easy to pay off, and easy to discard when the time came.”
