Chapter 4 - The Day Before the Crash
Ava had spent eight months trying not to remember the crash.
Now she forced herself to.
It had happened on a wet November night.
She had left Monroe Biologics at 8:17 p.m. after a board meeting that ran late. She remembered calling Ethan from the parking garage.
She remembered telling him she was tired.
She remembered him saying, “Drive slow. I’ll stay awake until you get home.”
Then she remembered a red light.
Her foot pressing the brake.
The pedal sinking uselessly to the floor.
A horn.
Glass.
Metal folding.
Darkness.
The official report blamed a failed brake hose.
Bad luck.
A manufacturing defect.
Nothing criminal.
Detective Brooks stood at Ava’s hospital window with the auto-shop invoice in hand.
“This shop closed six months ago.”
“Convenient,” Ethan said.
“Maybe.”
Ava looked at the invoice.
Only one service was listed.
Brake system inspection.
Customer name: M. Vale.
Ethan turned slowly toward his mother’s name.
“No.”
The word came out like a prayer.
Ava watched him.
Part of her wanted to protect him from what was happening.
A bigger part wanted the truth more.
Brooks continued. “The VIN written on the invoice belongs to your wife’s SUV.”
Ethan sat down hard.
“She had no reason to touch Ava’s car.”
“Did your mother have access?”
“Yes. She had keys to the house. The garage. Everything.”
Ava remembered something.
“Two days before the crash, Margaret borrowed my car.”
Ethan looked up.
“She said hers was being detailed.”
“What did she do with it?”
“I don’t know. She was gone for maybe two hours.”
Brooks wrote it down.
Then Ava’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
At first, there was only static.
Then a man whispered, “You should stop digging.”
Ethan took the phone.
“Who is this?”
The call ended.
Brooks immediately requested a trace.
A minute later, Lena called.
Her voice was shaking.
“I found something in Mrs. Margaret’s room.”
“What?”
“A second phone.”
“Don’t touch it,” Brooks said. “Leave the house now.”
Lena whispered, “There are messages on the screen.”
“Lena, leave.”
“I saw your name, Mrs. Vale.”
Ava’s stomach tightened.
“And another name.”
“Whose?”
Lena paused.
“Mr. Pike.”
Ethan’s head snapped toward Detective Brooks.
Conrad Pike was not a stranger.
He was the Vale family attorney.
And he was the lawyer who had drafted Ava’s prenuptial agreement, handled her medical directives after the crash, and assured Ethan that every document Margaret brought to the hospital was routine.
May you like
Before Ava could speak, Lena screamed.
The call went dead.
