CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY SEVEN – SOME SPACE TO BREATHE

"Kayla? Babe, is everything --" "Don't," she choked out in a voice ragged with anguish. "Don't bother with the pleasantries, Lance." An uneasy silence fell between them, and she could practically sense his confusion. Finally, he spoke again, softly. "What's this about, Kayla? You're starting to scare me..." Something inside her finally snapped at his feigned tenderness. Kayla angled the phone away from her mouth and turned her burning gaze to Sofia. "Show me more," she whispered hoarsely, beckoning for the other woman to reveal further evidence. For the next several minutes, a parade of even more sordid horrors paraded before her eyes. Lurid videos and audio recordings, bank accounts squirreled away under shell corporations on far-flung islands, ironclad signed testimonials from spurned past lovers and associates - every deluge of proof seemed to outdo the last. "Kayla?!" Lance's frantic voice echoed from her phone, long since fallen to her side as she stared transfixed at the a