Chapter 6
Rafe did not excuse himself.
That saved him from making things worse.
“Two years ago, I got a call from Marcella.”
I stared at him.
“The night Elena died?”
“Yes.”
Vivia looked between us.
Rafe lowered his voice.
Marcella told him Elena was emotionally unstable and leaving the estate furious after a family argument. She ordered him to send one car after her.
Not stop her.
Follow.
At least that was what Rafe believed.
“Whose car?”
He gave me the name.
Thomas Greer.
One of our drivers.
Dead eighteen months.
Another conveniently buried voice.
“What happened?”
Rafe swallowed.
“Thomas called me from the north road. He said Elena was driving too fast.”
My jaw tightened.
“She never drove fast.”
“I know that now.”
“What did he say next?”
“He said he lost sight of her near the bridge.”
Then fifteen minutes later, the crash was reported back through family channels.
No one questioned Thomas because he said he had arrived after it happened.
Marcella told everyone Elena had driven upset.
I believed it because we had argued that morning.
There.
My part.
The guilt waiting for me.
Elena and I had argued because she wanted me to cancel a dinner with three old captains.
I refused.
She said I still underestimated how badly they wanted the old structure back.
I told her she was turning politics into paranoia.
The last thing I gave my wife before she died was doubt.
Marcella saw my face.
She reached for that wound immediately.
“You didn’t believe her either.”
Rafe stiffened.
I did not.
“She was my wife.”
“And you dismissed her.”
“Yes.”
Marcella looked surprised.
I continued.
“I was wrong.”
Silence.
“But my failure to believe her does not erase what you did after I failed.”
That destroyed the direction she wanted.
Manipulators need guilt to become surrender.
I kept mine.
She kept hers.
I looked at Rafe.
“You should have told me she called you.”
“Yes.”
“You believed Marcella.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
His answer hurt because it was ordinary.
“She was your sister.”
There it was again.
Blood treated as evidence of innocence.
I looked toward the USB.
Elena had known exactly what kind of wall she was fighting.
Not one villain.
A family trained to trust familiar faces more than uncomfortable truth.
I opened another recording.
Thomas Greer’s voice came through.
Apparently Elena had recorded him too.
May you like
And the first words he said were:
“Marcella told me to scare you, not run you off the road.”
