The Crash
Elena Marquez pressed harder on the accelerator.
The black SUV behind her did the same.
“No.”
Her fingers tightened around the steering wheel as rain battered the windshield. The wipers moved frantically, barely keeping up with the storm.
She glanced at the rearview mirror.
Two headlights.
Too close.
They had been behind her for eleven miles.
Maybe twelve.
At first, she had told herself she was imagining it. There were only so many roads leading out of the city, and the storm had forced most drivers onto the highway.
Then she took the exit toward Northbridge.
The SUV followed.
She turned down Hawthorne.
It followed.
She deliberately passed the entrance to her neighborhood.
Still there.
Elena swallowed.
Her phone sat in the passenger seat beside a leather folder and the small black flash drive that had just destroyed what remained of her life.
Everything was on it.
Every transfer.
Every falsified authorization.
Every company Jaden had hidden behind.
And enough evidence to prove that she had been telling the truth all along.
Her throat tightened.
Nathaniel.
She should call Nathaniel.
The thought alone made something painful twist beneath her ribs.
For months, she’d imagined this moment.
Finding the proof.
Walking into his office.
Dropping it onto that ridiculous walnut conference table he’d paid more for than their first apartment had cost.
Watching his face when he realized she hadn’t lied.
Not once.
She’d imagined satisfaction.
Vindication.
Maybe even watching him hurt.
She hadn’t imagined being terrified.
The SUV moved closer.
Elena grabbed her phone.
“Nate,” she whispered.
Her thumb hovered over his name.
Nathaniel Mercer.
Her husband.
For another few weeks, anyway.
She hit call.
The phone rang.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Voicemail.
Of course.
A bitter laugh escaped her.
“Some things never change.”
She ended the call.
The SUV’s headlights suddenly flooded her mirrors.
Elena gasped as it surged forward.
Her phone rang.
Jaden.
Her stomach dropped.
For a moment, she could only stare at his name.
Then she declined the call.
It rang again.
“No.”
Again.
She turned the phone facedown.
Her hands were shaking now.
She had been wrong about so many things.
About the company.
About her marriage.
About the people she’d called family.
But Jaden…
God.
Jaden had been the worst.
Three hours earlier, she’d walked into his office carrying copies of financial records she’d spent months piecing together.
She had expected denial.
Maybe anger.
She hadn’t expected him to look relieved.
Almost peaceful.
You weren’t supposed to find out.
The words still crawled across her skin.
A horn blared.
Elena jerked her attention back to the road.
The SUV swerved into the lane beside her.
Her heart slammed against her ribs.
She couldn’t see the driver.
Tinted windows.
No front plate.
She grabbed her phone again.
Nathaniel.
Call.
“Answer me,” she whispered.
The SUV drifted toward her.
Elena swerved.
Her tires skidded across wet pavement.
“Come on, Nate.”
The call connected.
For half a second she heard nothing.
Then his voice.
“Elena?”
She almost sobbed.
“Nate.”
Something changed immediately on the other end.
“Elena? What’s wrong?”
She looked in the mirror.
The SUV disappeared behind her.
Relief rushed through her.
Then headlights exploded beside her driver’s-side window.
“Nate, listen to me.”
“Where are you?”
“I know who did it.”
Silence.
“What?”
“The money. The accounts. Everything. I know who…”
The SUV struck her.
Metal screamed.
Elena screamed with it.
“Elena!”
The car spun.
Her phone flew from her hand.
Glass shattered.
The world became headlights and darkness and rain.
“Elena!”
Nathaniel’s voice came faintly through the phone somewhere near her feet.
Her car slammed into the guardrail.
Once.
Twice.
The second impact broke through it.
For one impossible second, Elena felt weightless.
Then the car dropped.
Her final thought wasn’t about the company.
It wasn’t about Jaden.
It wasn’t even about dying.
It was about a twenty-five-year-old man standing barefoot in a tiny kitchen, holding two chipped coffee mugs and grinning at her like their entire future was waiting on the other side of breakfast.
Nate.
Then everything went black.
