Chapter 10 - THE ORIGINAL PLAN
Raymond claimed Margaret hired him to damage Ava's brakes just enough to create a frightening failure on a low-speed road.
"She said Ava needed a lesson," he said. "A little fear. A little dependence."
"She nearly died," Ethan snapped.
"Because Margaret changed the route."
According to Raymond, Ava was supposed to drive to a restaurant downtown. Margaret anonymously sent her a message that Ethan had been seen with another woman at a lodge outside the city.
Ava remembered the message.
She remembered the rage.
The rain.
The unfamiliar road.
She had never told Ethan why she was out there because she felt ashamed for believing the lie.
"She chose a mountain route," Raymond said. "I didn't know until afterward."
Ruiz's face remained expressionless. "And Charles Hale?"
Raymond hung up.
They traced the call to a prepaid phone near a bus terminal.
By the time police arrived, he was gone.
But the call gave Ava something she hadn't had in two years: proof that her memory was not broken.
Margaret had spent months teaching Ava to distrust herself.
Every forgotten hour became "brain damage."
Every disagreement became "confusion."
Every protest became evidence that Ava couldn't manage her own life.
That afternoon Ethan sat beside her.
"I helped her do that to you."
Ava didn't rescue him from the truth.
"You believed her over me."
"I did."
"Again and again."
"I know."
He wiped his eyes.
"I don't expect forgiveness because I'm sorry."
Ava looked at him for a long time.
"Good. Because sorry is where this starts, not where it ends."
For the first time, Ethan nodded instead of defending himself.
Then Lena rushed into the room holding a tablet.
"You need to see this."
A local news site had published an exclusive story.
The headline read:
HEIRESS'S MENTAL DECLINE SPARKS FAMILY BATTLE OVER $17 MILLION FORTUNE.
The article quoted an anonymous "family source."
It described Ava as paranoid, violent, addicted to medication, and incapable of caring for herself.
At the bottom was a photograph taken inside the Hale home.
Only three people had access to that room.
May you like
One of them was Margaret.
• • •
