Chapter 9
The recording began with road noise.
Elena’s breathing.
Then Adrian.
His voice was unmistakable.
“You think Lorenzo will choose you over blood?”
A pause.
Elena answered.
“I think he deserves to know what his blood has become.”
Lorenzo closed his eyes.
Bianca stared at the floor.
Adrian’s voice sharpened.
“Give me the phone.”
“No.”
A rustle.
The sound of a hand striking the dashboard.
Mia crying in the back seat.
Lorenzo’s jaw tightened.
Then Elena:
“Don’t touch her.”
Adrian’s breathing became heavier.
“You’re leaving anyway.”
“For two days.”
Lorenzo opened his eyes.
Two days.
Not forever.
Elena continued.
“I’m taking Mia to my sister until Lorenzo sees the accounts and decides what he wants to be.”
Every message Adrian had shown Lorenzo now changed meaning.
Elena had planned to leave temporarily.
Not escape Lorenzo.
Force him to choose.
Then Adrian said:
“You already know what he’ll choose.”
Elena answered immediately.
“Then why are you so afraid of letting him?”
Silence.
Even two years later, the line cut through the room.
Then the recording became violent.
Adrian demanded the phone.
Elena told him to get out.
Mia cried.
A door opened.
Wind.
Then Adrian again, farther away.
The car seemed to stop.
Another voice approached.
Bianca.
“What happened?”
Adrian:
“She triggered the backup.”
Bianca:
“Where’s the phone?”
Elena shouted from inside the car:
“Lorenzo already has enough.”
Then Bianca’s voice changed.
Sharp.
“Take it.”
The recording fractured.
Metal scraping.
Mia screaming.
A hard impact.
Then static.
Everyone in the room stopped breathing.
Lorenzo stared at the waveform.
“That’s the crash?”
The engineer shook his head.
“No.”
Lorenzo looked up.
The man pointed.
“The primary collision comes forty-three seconds later.”
Silence.
The audio had captured an earlier impact.
Something happened before Elena’s car went over the embankment.
May you like
And during those forty-three seconds—
both Adrian and Bianca were still close enough to speak.
