A WEEK BEFORE MY WEDDING, MY FIANCÉ PAID A MAN TO ATTACK ME SO HE COULD SECRETLY MARRY ANOTHER WOMAN — WHILE I LAY IN A HOSPITAL BED, I HEARD HIM SAY "AFTER THIS, WHO WOULD EVER WANT HER?"

The man who'd actually thrown the substance was identified eleven days later — a low-level associate of a private security contractor Desmond's firm occasionally used, paid, according to bank records eventually recovered, $40,000 through a series of cash withdrawals structured to avoid reporting requirements.

He was arrested first. Faced with the prospect of a considerably longer sentence for carrying out the attack alone versus cooperating against the man who'd hired him, he gave a full statement within days.

Desmond was arrested at his own office, three weeks after my hospitalization began, charged with conspiracy to commit assault, solicitation, and — once investigators fully traced the financial trail — fraud related to the falsified marriage license application.

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