Chapter 4 - THE NIGHT OF THE CRASH
Vanessa screamed, “She was three!”
Emma flinched.
Lucas immediately moved between them.
“Lower your voice.”
“She was a toddler. She can’t possibly remember that.”
Emma began crying.
“I do remember.”
Lucas knelt beside her.
“Tell me.”
Grace sat next to Emma.
“Take your time.”
Emma sniffed.
“I was in Mommy’s car.”
Lucas froze.
“No.”
The police report said Rachel had been alone.
Emma shook her head.
“I was in the back.”
Lucas felt dizzy.
“That’s impossible.”
“No, Daddy.”
Emma wiped her face.
“Mommy picked me up from Grandma’s house.”
Lucas looked at Grace.
Grace’s eyes widened.
Their mother had died the year after Rachel.
There was no one left to ask.
“What happened?”
Emma closed her eyes.
“Mommy was crying.”
Lucas’s chest tightened.
“She kept looking behind us.”
“What did she say?”
Emma whispered, “She said, ‘Not tonight.’”
Vanessa turned toward the door.
Grace blocked her again.
Emma continued.
“There was a red car.”
Lucas looked at Vanessa.
“What kind?”
Emma shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“Of course she doesn’t.”
Emma pointed.
“But it had a broken light.”
Lucas saw Vanessa’s expression collapse.
“A broken front light,” Emma said.
Lucas stared at her.
Vanessa owned a red Mustang back then.
He had seen an old photograph once.
He remembered joking about it.
“You sold a red Mustang.”
Vanessa said nothing.
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“Did it have a damaged headlight?”
Diane suddenly shouted, “Enough!”
Everyone turned.
Diane was crying now.
“Vanessa, tell him.”
“Mom!”
“Tell him!”
Vanessa’s face twisted with rage.
“You always do this.”
Diane shook.
“I can’t keep protecting you.”
Lucas stepped toward her.
“Protecting her from what?”
Diane covered her mouth.
Vanessa moved fast.
She grabbed a glass perfume bottle and threw it.
It shattered against the wall beside Diane’s head.
Emma screamed.
Lucas seized Vanessa and pinned her arms.
“Stop!”
Vanessa fought him.
“Let me go!”
“You’re done.”
Security guards appeared.
Lucas ordered them to hold Vanessa.
Then he looked at Diane.
“Talk.”
Diane sank onto a chair.
“Vanessa didn’t kill Rachel.”
Lucas waited.
“But she was there.”
The room went silent.
Diane stared at the floor.
“Rachel discovered that Vanessa’s father had been moving money from the foundation.”
Vanessa shouted, “Don’t you dare!”
Diane kept talking.
“He was going to prison.”
“Mom!”
“Rachel had copies of everything.”
Lucas felt sick.
“So Vanessa followed her.”
Diane nodded.
“To scare her.”
“Scare her how?”
Vanessa stopped struggling.
Diane whispered, “They wanted the documents.”
“They?”
Diane looked up.
“Vanessa wasn’t alone that night.”
Lucas’s jaw tightened.
“Who was with her?”
Diane opened her mouth.
A gunshot exploded from the hallway.
Everyone dropped.
A security guard crashed through the doorway.
May you like
Blood spread across his shirt.
And behind him stood a man Lucas recognized from his own wedding guest list.
