Chapter 19 - The Choice
The shot struck the concrete wall.
Daniel hit the ground, pulling Claire down with him. Ruiz and the officers rushed Margaret. The gun skidded across the floor. Within seconds, Margaret was face down, her wrists cuffed behind her.
Daniel was bleeding from a cut along his temple where the concrete had caught him. Claire pressed a clean cloth against it.
“Stay still,” she said.
He gave a weak laugh. “You always say that when I'm hurt.”
“Don't make this about us.”
“I won't.”
The ambulance arrived. Margaret was taken into custody. Ruiz secured the transcript and the recording. The last piece of the fire investigation was finally in police hands.
At the hospital, Daniel needed stitches but was otherwise fine. Claire sat beside the bed while a nurse finished checking his pupils.
“I didn't ask you to save me,” she said.
“I know.”
“You don't get to turn one good choice into a clean record.”
“I know that too.”
He looked at her, tired and honest in a way she had rarely seen. “I will testify. I'll tell them what I knew, what I hid, and what I did. I won't ask you to wait for me.”
Claire stood.
“That's the first thing you've said that I believe.”
He nodded.
At the door, she turned back. “I hope you become a better man.”
“So do I.”
She left without kissing him.
Outside, Lena waited with two paper cups of coffee. They sat in the car while dawn spread over the hospital windows.
“Are you okay?” Lena asked.
“No.”
“Me neither.”
Claire leaned her head against the seat. “But I think we're going to be.”
Lena handed her a cup.
On the radio, the morning news announced that the Mercer company had suspended operations and that prosecutors were preparing charges against several former executives.
For the first time, the story was no longer being told by the people who had hidden it.
The sisters drove toward the Whitmore estate.
They had one final thing to do.
May you like
At the ruined studio, Claire looked at the wall where the fire had started. She imagined Evelyn and Rosa working late, sharing coffee, arguing over a hemline, laughing at some private joke. The image was not evidence. It was something she chose to keep. Daniel's transcript could explain the crime, but it could not define the women who had lived before it.
THE DRESS FULL OF SECRETS |
