Chapter 3 - THREE MONTHS OF LIES
By midnight, the police had photographed the staircase and taken statements. Vanessa had left with her attorney, loudly insisting she had never touched the wheelchair. Emma had gone to urgent care for her knee and declined Adrian's offer of a ride.
He found her at dawn outside the small clinic, waiting for a cab under an awning. Rain painted the parking lot silver.
"You should be resting," he said.
"And you should be honest. Looks like we're both bad at something."
He stood beside her, refusing the shelter of an umbrella because she had none. "Dr. Chen cleared me to walk short distances in August. I still have nerve pain. Some mornings I need the chair. I didn't fake being injured."
"But you faked being unable to stand. For me."
"I thought whoever tampered with my car would try again if they knew I was recovering."
Emma's eyes were red, but her voice stayed level. "Then you hire security. You go to the police. You don't turn somebody's love into part of a surveillance operation."
Love. Neither had used the word before. Adrian didn't seize it like a gift. He had no right.
"You're right," he said.
"I know."
"I'm sorry."
"I believe you mean that. I don't know what it changes."
Her cab arrived. Before she opened the door, Adrian handed her an envelope holding the unpaid overtime she had refused to bill. She pushed it back.
"I'm not leaving because of money. I'm leaving because I need to know my own life is mine."
"It is."
"Then don't follow me."
At the office, his attorney, Nora Bennett, waited with papers spread across the conference table. One was a medical assessment declaring him permanently incapable of managing his affairs. It bore a doctor's signature Adrian didn't recognize.
"This is what they're using to sell Crescent Harbor," Nora said. "The board votes Friday."
May you like
Adrian looked at the signature line beneath his own forged initials.
The witness was Vanessa Vale.
