Chapter 4
I forgot how to breathe.
My mother had died three years earlier.
A highway accident.
Rain.
A guardrail.
A police report that said she lost control of her car.
I looked at Ryan.
He wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“What does my mother have to do with you?”
Diane’s confidence disappeared as quickly as it had come.
“I was angry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
I moved toward her.
“No. Finish it.”
Thomas looked equally confused.
“Diane?”
Ryan stepped in.
“She’s trying to upset Emily.”
“Then look at me,” I said.
Ryan didn’t.
My hands started shaking.
The last person my mother called before her accident had been me.
I missed the call.
I had been at dinner with Ryan.
He told me to put my phone away.
It was our anniversary.
I had listened to the voicemail later.
Emily, sweetheart, call me when you can. Something strange happened today.
Those were her last words to me.
“What happened that night?” I asked.
Ryan finally looked up.
“Nothing.”
Diane reached for her coat.
“I’m leaving.”
An officer blocked her.
“Ma’am, we’re still speaking with you.”
Thomas stared at his wife.
“You know something.”
Diane snapped, “I said too much.”
Ryan shouted, “Mom!”
I turned toward the officer.
“Can you make them tell me?”
“Not without more information.”
Thomas immediately took out his phone.
“I have the investigator’s number.”
Ryan lunged toward him.
An officer grabbed his arm.
“Don’t.”
Ryan stopped.
His breathing was heavy.
That fear in his eyes told me more than words could.
Thomas called the investigator on speaker.
A sleepy male voice answered.
“Hello?”
“Daniel, it’s Thomas Hayes.”
There was a pause.
“Thomas?”
“I need to know whether you found anything involving Emily’s mother.”
Ryan swore under his breath.
The investigator went silent.
Then he said, “I told you I needed another week.”
My knees weakened.
Thomas looked at me.
“What did you find?”
“Ryan’s second phone records.”
Ryan shouted, “You accessed my private data illegally!”
Daniel continued.
“I didn’t access the phone. I found old billing records tied to the number.”
“Daniel,” Thomas said sharply. “Tell us.”
Another pause.
“That phone called Emily’s mother seven times during the week before her death.”
I grabbed the back of a chair.
Seven times.
Ryan had told me he barely spoke to her.
My mother never trusted him.
She once said, “There’s something behind his smile.”
I defended him.
I actually became angry with her.
“Why was he calling her?” I whispered.
“I don’t know yet,” Daniel said.
Ryan laughed too loudly.
“I was trying to repair our relationship.”
“Seven calls?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you would have made it into something.”
Diane covered her face.
Thomas saw it.
“What else do you know?”
“Nothing.”
“Diane!”
She looked at Ryan.
He shook his head slowly.
That tiny movement broke her.
“He wanted money,” she whispered.
Ryan closed his eyes.
“What money?” I asked.
Diane’s voice cracked.
“Your mother found out Ryan had debts.”
My stomach twisted.
“What debts?”
“Gambling.”
Ryan exploded.
“She doesn’t know what she’s talking about!”
But Diane continued.
“He owed people almost four hundred thousand dollars.”
Thomas looked horrified.
“You told me it was fifty.”
Ryan didn’t answer.
Diane began crying.
“Your mother discovered he was using your savings.”
I stepped closer.
“And?”
“She threatened to tell you.”
The room went still.
My voice was barely audible.
“What happened after that?”
Diane looked at her son.
Then at me.
“The night she died, Ryan left our house around nine.”
Ryan shouted at her to stop.
Diane flinched.
“He came back after midnight.”
The police officer’s expression changed.
My mother’s accident had happened at 10:47 p.m.
I looked at Ryan.
“Where were you at 10:47?”
May you like
He stared at me.
And for the first time in six years, my husband had no lie ready.
