Chapter 11 - Everybody Betrays Somebody
Mark blamed Elaine for everything.
Elaine blamed Miriam.
Miriam blamed Daniel.
Rain fell harder.
The ridge looked exactly like the night of my crash.
Only this time, everyone could see everyone.
Mark demanded money.
Elaine laughed.
"It's gone."
He pointed the gun at her.
"You promised me the cabin."
"It was never mine."
That truth finally surfaced in front of all of them.
Miriam began crying.
"I told you the deed wouldn't hold."
Elaine screamed at her.
"You said Daniel would never find out."
Maria's team moved closer through the trees.
Caleb whispered into his radio.
Then Mark saw the movement.
He panicked.
He fired.
The bullet struck the guardrail.
Elaine fired back.
Mark fell.
Miriam ran.
Evan grabbed her before she slipped.
Elaine turned toward me.
For one second, we stood ten feet apart.
She could have shot me.
Instead, she looked at Evan.
"You chose her."
Evan shook his head.
"I chose myself."
Elaine's hand trembled.
Then she raised the gun toward her own chest.
I moved before thinking.
I knocked her arm aside.
The shot went into the mud.
Caleb and Maria tackled her.
Evan stared at me.
"Why did you stop her?"
"Because dying would let her leave you with another story you could never question."
Elaine began screaming.
She called me a thief.
A murderer.
A replacement.
Everything she had taught Evan.
No one believed her anymore.
Mark survived the gunshot.
Miriam surrendered.
Elaine was arrested.
As officers led her away, she looked back at Evan.
"I raised you."
He answered.
"No."
"My parents did."
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"You just made sure I forgot what they said."
