Chapter 17 - The Shot
The shot cracked through the trees.
I dropped.
For half a second, I thought he had hit me.
Then Caleb fell against the truck.
Ortiz had fired first.
The bullet struck his shoulder.
He dropped the gun.
Everything after that became noise.
Commands.
Sirens.
My own breathing.
At the hospital, the baby’s heartbeat was strong.
I cried so hard the nurse had to sit beside me.
Ryan arrived an hour later.
Security stopped him at the door.
I saw him through the glass.
He looked at my hospital bracelet.
Then at my stomach.
“Please,” he said.
I almost told them to send him away.
Instead, I gave him five minutes.
He stood at the foot of the bed.
“I heard about the road.”
“I’m alive.”
“I know.”
“That’s more than my father got.”
He flinched.
Good.
“I gave Ortiz everything,” he said. “Emails. Dad’s old phone. Mom’s financial passwords.”
“Why now?”
“Because I spent eleven years being afraid of what the truth would cost me.”
He looked at the floor.
“And I finally understand what the lie cost you.”
I did not forgive him.
But I listened.
He placed an envelope on the table.
A signed waiver.
He was withdrawing his claim to temporary Carter management rights and agreeing not to challenge the Continuity Trust.
“Is this another performance?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because your father was right. One decent act doesn’t clean my history.”
My eyes stung.
He had read the letter from the deposit box.
Before he left, he stopped.
“Elise told me about the donor.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t know.”
“I believe you.”
That seemed to hurt him more.
At the door, he looked back.
“There’s something else on Dad’s old phone. A voicemail from Mom. The night Thomas died.”
“What does it say?”
May you like
Ryan’s face drained.
“She tells Dad where to hit your father’s car.”
