Chương 3
“You said it made your fingers stupid.”
Elena looked down.
“I still hate it.”
Richard rubbed his mouth.
The movement made him suddenly look less like the man whose name appeared on hospital wings and university buildings and more like somebody who had forgotten what to do with his hands.
“I went to your funeral.”
Elena’s breathing changed.
He noticed.
“You knew?”
“Not then.”
“When?”
“Years later.”
“And you didn’t call me?”
Victoria turned sharply.
“Dad, stop interrogating her.”
Richard stood so quickly the train movement nearly unbalanced him.
“You do not get to tell me what to do right now.”
Victoria’s face flushed.
“I am trying to keep you from being manipulated.”
“By whom?”
“Her.”
Richard pointed at Elena.
“You are the only person in this room who has admitted lying.”
“I did not admit anything.”
“You said you didn’t know her. Then you said she contacted you.”
“That is not the same as knowing her.”
“How long?”
Victoria said nothing.
“How long has she been contacting you?”
Elena answered.
“Six weeks.”
Richard looked at her.
Victoria’s eyes closed again.
Elena continued, “I sent three messages. She answered one.”
Richard asked, “What did she say?”
Elena unlocked her phone.
Her thumb shook. She scrolled through the screen, then held it toward him.
Victoria moved.
Mara stepped between them.
“Don’t.”
“I’m not touching her.”
“Then stay there.”
Richard took the phone.
The message thread contained no name. Only a number.
Elena’s first message had been sent six weeks earlier.
I’m alive. I’m not asking you for money. I’m not coming to the house. I need you to tell Dad the truth before I do.
No answer.
Five days later:
Celia’s family deserves the truth too.
Another week:
Naomi has the records. If you tell him yourself, I won’t blindside him in public.
Then, finally, a response.
You died twelve years ago. Stay dead.
Richard read it twice.
The phone lowered in his hand.
Victoria said, “Anyone could have sent that.”
Richard looked at the number.
He knew it.
He called it.
Victoria’s coat pocket began to ring.
No one moved.
The ringtone was soft, almost cheerful.
Victoria reached into her pocket and silenced it.
Elena stared at the ice pack in her lap.
Richard handed the phone back to her.
“How did you survive?”
Elena looked toward the windows.
Outside, the storm turned the mountains into brief pale shapes and then erased them again.
“I don’t know how much I can tell you without sounding insane.”
Richard’s voice was quiet.
“Try me.”
She glanced at Victoria.
Victoria whispered, “Don’t.”
Elena’s fear sharpened.
Mara saw it.
Richard saw Mara see it.
That was enough.
He moved his chair so he sat between Elena and Victoria.
Victoria gave him a look of disbelief.
He did not return it.
Elena swallowed.
“Twelve years ago, Celia Hart and I left the New Haven house after the argument.”
Richard frowned.
“What argument?”
“You and Victoria.”
Richard looked toward his older daughter.
Victoria stared at the floor.
Elena said, “You were in your office. I heard you two yelling about Foundation money.”
Richard’s expression changed.
“I remember.”
Victoria said, “That had nothing to do with this.”
Elena continued as if she had not spoken.
“Celia had come to pick me up. We were going back to campus. It was raining. She spilled coffee on her coat before she got there, so she took mine from the mudroom. The green one.”
Richard’s face went still.
He remembered the coat.
They had buried it.
Or what remained of it.
“I had her scarf,” Elena said. “She had my coat. We switched because we were idiots and twenty and cold.”
“You were driving?” Richard asked.
“Celia was.”
Victoria said, “No.”
Elena stopped.
Richard looked at Victoria.
“What?”
“She’s already changing the story.”
Elena’s eyes narrowed.
“You weren’t there when we left.”
“No, but I know what happened.”
“That’s interesting.”
“Elena,” Mara warned gently.
Elena shifted the ice against her temple.
“I’m okay.”
She was not.
Her heart was beating too hard. The train seemed to move in ways it had not moved ten minutes earlier.
She forced herself to continue.
“Celia wanted cigarettes. We stopped at a gas station north of town. I got out. I saw Victoria’s car across the road.”
Richard’s eyes moved toward his older daughter.
Victoria shook her head.
“No.”
“You followed us.”
“I was going home.”
“You lived south.”
“I had errands.”
“At eleven thirty at night?”
“I was twenty-four.”
Elena laughed without humor.
“That’s your defense?”
“It’s the truth.”
Richard said, “Let her finish.”
Victoria looked at him.
Something in her face broke briefly.
Then hardened again.
Elena said, “We got back on the highway. Victoria stayed behind us. Celia got nervous because she knew about the argument. I told her it was fine.”
Her fingers tightened around the ice cloth.
“The next part comes in pieces.”
Nobody interrupted.
“Headlights behind us. Celia saying she couldn’t see. My phone ringing. Victoria’s name on the screen.”
Victoria whispered, “Stop.”
Elena looked at her.
“You called eleven times.”
“I was trying to warn you.”
“About what?”
Victoria did not answer.
Elena turned back to Richard.
“Celia took the mountain road because the interstate was blocked. Victoria followed. At the overlook she pulled alongside us.”
Richard frowned.
“Pulled alongside?”
“She wanted us to stop.”
Victoria said, “Because the road was dangerous.”
“You were forcing us toward the shoulder.”
“That’s not what happened.”
“Then why did Celia lose control?”
Victoria looked at Richard.
“Because she was speeding.”
Elena’s voice went flat.
“She was speeding because you were chasing us.”
Kemp shifted uneasily but said nothing.
Mara had stopped pretending this was merely a medical situation.
Elena’s gaze dropped to her own hands.
“The car went through the barrier.”
Richard breathed in.
“I remember falling. I remember glass. I remember Celia screaming my name.”
A flash of lightning turned the windows blue.
Elena flinched hard enough that Kemp reached toward her.
May you like
She waved him off.
“Then I woke up in a hospital forty miles away.”
