Chapter 10 - What Happened to Sarah
Emily stopped breathing.
Her mother’s name had not been spoken all night.
Sarah Vale had died four years earlier after her car went over a mountain guardrail during a rainstorm.
Accident.
That was what Adrian had told Emily.
That was what the police report said.
That was what Adrian had forced himself to believe.
Emily looked at him.
“What does he mean?”
“Nothing.”
Rook laughed through the speaker.
“That answer is why your daughter doesn’t trust you.”
Adrian looked toward the ceiling.
“You want me? Open the door.”
“I want your daughter’s signature.”
“You’re not getting it.”
“Then she gets the truth.”
A monitor embedded in the tunnel wall flickered to life.
Adrian had never noticed it beneath the dust.
Video appeared.
A parking garage.
Four years earlier.
Sarah.
Alive.
She stood beside her car arguing with someone outside the camera angle.
Emily stepped closer.
“Mom…”
Adrian moved to block the screen.
She shoved past him.
“No.”
“Emily.”
“No more.”
The video continued.
Sarah held up a folder.
“You said you were done,” she shouted at someone off-screen.
A man entered frame.
Adrian.
Younger.
Angry.
Emily turned slowly toward her father.
“You were there.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“You told me you were in Chicago.”
“I lied.”
The words seemed to wound her more than the video.
On-screen, Adrian grabbed the folder from Sarah.
She slapped him.
Then the recording skipped.
Twenty-three minutes vanished.
When the image returned, Sarah was gone.
Adrian was alone, staring at the floor.
Rook’s voice came over the speaker.
“Tell her.”
Emily’s eyes filled with tears.
“Tell me what?”
Adrian swallowed.
“Your mother found evidence someone inside my company was selling movement schedules for protected clients.”
Mara stiffened.
Adrian continued.
“She thought Victor was involved. I thought she was wrong.”
“You fought about it?”
“Yes.”
“Then what?”
“She left.”
“And crashed?”
Adrian stared at the screen.
“I followed her.”
Emily stepped back.
“You followed her?”
“I was ten minutes behind. By the time I reached the mountain road, her car was already gone.”
“You never told me.”
“I thought the argument drove her into that storm.”
Emily’s voice broke.
“So for four years you let me believe you weren’t even there?”
“I was ashamed.”
Rook interrupted.
“Touching.”
The screen changed.
A second video appeared.
Sarah’s car at the guardrail.
A figure stood beside it before it went over.
Not Adrian.
The image sharpened.
Emily gasped.
Victor.
Adrian stared.
Then another figure stepped into frame behind his brother.
A woman in a charcoal suit.
May you like
Mara Quinn.
