Chapter 4 - Warren Had Really Used the Golf Club Before
Preston’s sentence sounded metaphorical at first.
It wasn’t.
My father used this to teach my mother obedience.
The golf club itself belonged to Warren.
Old steel shaft.
Black grip worn near the thumb.
It normally stood in a decorative golf bag inside the adjoining dressing room.
After the wedding was canceled, Giulietta’s attorney asked Preston what he meant.
At first he claimed:
“It was just something I said to scare her.”
Then Warren’s former wife was contacted.
Her name was Evelyn Hale.
Preston’s mother.
Giulietta had met her only twice.
Quiet woman.
Lives in Vermont.
Rarely attended Hale events.
Warren always said she hated crowds.
Evelyn’s version was different.
“I hated being around him.”
She confirmed Warren had once struck furniture with that golf club during arguments.
A kitchen cabinet.
A bedroom door.
A dining chair.
Never, according to Evelyn, directly striking her with the club.
But once he swung it against the wall beside her head so hard the plaster cracked.
Then told her:
“Next time, stand still when I’m speaking.”
Preston was thirteen.
He saw it.
That was the memory behind his threat to Giulietta.
Not some family joke.
Not exaggerated language.
A child had watched his father use fear as control—
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then grew into a man who believed intimidation was part of marriage.
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