[CHAPTER 4]
I spent that night in the police station.
Not as a suspect.
Not officially.
But I felt guilty enough to confess to crimes I had never committed.
Claire sat across the hallway with Sophie asleep against her chest.
Every few minutes I looked over.
Every time, Claire was still there.
Alive.
I had spent almost a year training myself not to search for her face in crowds.
Now I could not stop looking.
Detective Harris finally entered the interview room.
“We found something on Elena’s flash drive.”
I stood immediately.
“Is she alive?”
“We don’t know.”
That answer crushed Noah, who sat beside Claire.
Harris placed printed photographs on the table.
The first showed Claire’s wrecked car.
The second showed Vanessa’s black SUV several hundred feet behind it.
The third showed my mother’s car.
I stopped breathing.
“That’s not possible.”
Harris pointed to the timestamp.
“Traffic camera. Eleven forty-three p.m.”
The crash had been reported at eleven fifty-one.
My mother had always told me she was home that night.
I stared at the photograph.
“She was there.”
Claire said nothing.
I turned toward her.
“You remembered this?”
“Pieces.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because when memories come back after trauma, you don’t know which pieces belong together.”
Her voice softened.
“I remembered Vanessa near the car.”
She swallowed.
“And I remembered your mother screaming.”
“Screaming what?”
Claire looked at Sophie.
“I’m not discussing that in front of her.”
Harris arranged temporary accommodation for Claire, Sophie and Noah in a protected hotel.
I insisted on coming.
Claire did not want me there.
I could see it.
But Sophie reached for my hand when we entered the elevator.
That saved me.
Inside the hotel suite, Sophie finally slept in Claire’s arms.
Noah slept on the sofa.
Claire stood by the window.
I waited.
Eventually she said, “You can ask.”
“Anything?”
“Anything.”
I had imagined this conversation every night after she died.
In those fantasies, I always told her how much I loved her.
Now the first words out of my mouth were different.
“Did my mother try to kill you?”
Claire looked down.
“I don’t know.”
My chest tightened.
“What do you remember?”
“The argument.”
“With Vanessa?”
“With both of them.”
I felt sick.
Claire continued.
“I discovered money missing from Sophie’s trust.”
My father had created that trust before he died.
Almost four million dollars.
Only Claire, my mother and I had oversight.
“I found withdrawals disguised as investment transfers,” Claire said. “Vanessa’s company appeared in the chain.”
“Vanessa didn’t have access.”
“Your mother did.”
I sat down.
Claire watched me carefully.
“I confronted Margaret.”
“She denied it.”
“At first.”
“What happened?”
“She admitted she had approved transfers.”
“Why?”
“She said Vanessa had promised returns.”
“That makes no sense.”
“I know.”
Claire folded her arms tightly.
“She was hiding something else.”
A memory surfaced.
My mother asking me to sign documents after Claire’s funeral.
She said the trust needed restructuring.
I signed without reading every page.
Grief had made me careless.
“Did the transfers continue after your death?”
Claire’s eyes sharpened.
“That’s exactly what I wanted to know.”
I checked my banking app.
Then the trust portal.
My password failed.
Again.
Again.
“Locked?”
“No.”
I stared at the screen.
“Changed.”
Claire sat beside me.
That small movement hurt.
I called the bank’s emergency fraud line.
After verification, the representative told me something that turned my blood cold.
The trust had been nearly emptied.
Three point two million dollars had been transferred in six separate transactions over the previous eight months.
Every transfer carried my electronic authorization.
“I didn’t approve those.”
Claire looked at me.
“Can they show where they were initiated?”
The representative could not.
Not without a formal investigation.
I called Detective Harris immediately.
He told me not to touch anything else.
Then my phone rang.
My mother.
Claire saw the name.
“Answer.”
I put it on speaker.
“Ethan?”
My mother sounded like she had been crying.
“Where are you?”
“With Claire.”
Silence.
Then, “You should come home.”
“Why?”
“We need to talk privately.”
“Talk now.”
“Not over the phone.”
I looked at Claire.
She shook her head once.
“Did you steal from Sophie’s trust?”
My mother gasped.
“What?”
“Answer me.”
“Of course not.”
“Then why was your car near Claire’s crash?”
Silence.
Longer this time.
Claire closed her eyes.
Finally my mother whispered, “I was trying to stop Vanessa.”
Every muscle in my body locked.
“From doing what?”
“I didn’t know she would go that far.”
Claire stood.
I barely managed to speak.
“Mom, what did Vanessa do?”
“She was angry. Claire had threatened to expose everything.”
“What everything?”
My mother began sobbing.
“The money.”
“You helped her steal it?”
“I borrowed some.”
“Three million dollars?”
“No!”
“Then how much?”
“Ethan, please come home.”
“Tell me!”
“I made a mistake.”
“What happened the night Claire crashed?”
My mother breathed into the phone.
Then she whispered, “Vanessa followed her.”
Claire covered her mouth.
“I followed Vanessa.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew she was furious.”
“What happened?”
“I got there too late.”
Claire shook her head.
“No.”
My mother heard her.
“Claire?”
“You were there before the second impact.”
My mother began crying harder.
“I was trying to help.”
Claire’s voice became cold.
“You pulled Sophie out.”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“I thought you were dead.”
“No.”
Claire stepped closer to the phone.
“I was moving.”
My mother stopped crying.
The silence became unbearable.
Claire whispered, “You saw me alive.”
I closed my eyes.
My mother finally answered.
“Yes.”
Something inside me broke.
“Why did you leave her?”
“I panicked.”
“You left my wife dying beside the road?”
“I had Sophie!”
“You could have called an ambulance!”
“I did!”
“Eight minutes later!”
Silence.
Claire’s face changed.
A memory had returned.
“You took something from me.”
My mother made a small sound.
Claire touched her ring finger.
May you like
“My wedding ring.”
My mother hung up.
