Chapter 15 - The Marriage Question
Ethan returned from the jail alone.
Ava was waiting in a private hotel suite under police guard.
He stood inside the doorway as if crossing the room required permission.
“She knew who you were.”
Ava said nothing.
“She told me about the fundraiser. She said I should go because there were investors there.”
“And me?”
“She knew you’d be speaking.”
Ava looked down at her hands.
Their first meeting had always been one of her favorite stories.
Ethan spilling sparkling water on her notes.
Ava laughing.
Dinner two days later.
Marriage three years after that.
Now even that memory had fingerprints on it.
Ethan sat across from her.
“I didn’t know.”
“I believe you.”
Relief crossed his face too quickly.
She held up a hand.
“But believing you didn’t know doesn’t mean I know what our marriage becomes after this.”
His relief vanished.
“I understand.”
“No. You don’t.”
Her voice shook.
“Your mother chose me as a target. You became the bridge into my life. Maybe you loved me. Maybe every feeling between us was real. But the doorway was built by someone trying to reach my money.”
Ethan’s eyes filled.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Stop asking me to decide tonight.”
He nodded.
Later, Brooks called with news.
Margaret had agreed to cooperate.
Not out of remorse.
Out of fear.
Pike was alive.
He had contacted her lawyer and threatened to expose financial crimes she committed years earlier.
Margaret offered a deal: information on Pike’s accounts, safe houses, and allies.
In exchange, she wanted reduced charges.
Ava laughed without humor.
“Of course she does.”
But Margaret also revealed something else.
The crash had not been the first attempt to make Ava “incapable.”
Two months earlier, someone had tampered with medication at Ava’s office.
She had fainted during a board meeting.
Everyone blamed exhaustion.
Margaret admitted Pike arranged it.
“He was testing,” Brooks said.
“Testing what?”
“How the board reacted to seeing you impaired.”
Ava felt sick.
Pike had been rehearsing her collapse.
That evening, a forensic analyst recovered deleted messages from Margaret’s second phone.
One message was dated the night of Ava’s crash.
MARGARET: She is still alive.
PIKE: Then we move to Phase Two.
MARGARET: Ethan will never forgive me if he learns.
PIKE: He will never learn.
Ava read the exchange twice.
Then she noticed the timestamp on the next message.
It had been sent forty-seven minutes later.
From another number.
UNKNOWN: She survived. Change the hospital orders before Ethan arrives.
Brooks stared at it.
“We don’t know this number.”
Ava did.
It belonged to someone who had stood beside her bed that night.
May you like
Her neurologist.
Dr. Alan Reese.
