Chapter 3 - THE DEAD WOMAN OPENED HER EYES
Victor came to the hospital on the morning of my funeral.
He did not know I was there.
Adrian had ordered his investigators to leak one detail: Cross Atlantic’s chief executive was in Aspen personally reviewing the fifty-million-dollar claim.
Victor arrived in a navy suit, demanding a private conversation.
Adrian told hospital security to send him upstairs.
I lay against white pillows in a pale blue hospital gown. Bruising covered one side of my face. My wrist was wrapped, and medical cables ran beneath the blanket.
Adrian sat beside me, holding my hand.
The door opened.
Victor stepped inside.
For one second, his face showed nothing.
Then he saw me.
His body jerked as though someone had struck him.
“Elena.”
He moved toward the bed.
Adrian rose and slammed one palm against Victor’s chest, driving him backward.
Victor’s heel struck the window ledge.
“Take one more step,” Adrian said.
Victor stared at my stomach, then at the steady rhythm on the monitor.
“Elena… you’re alive.”
I lifted my chin.
“You filed before they found my body.”
His eyes darted toward the door.
“This isn’t what you think.”
Adrian seized the dark insurance folder from the bedside table and slammed it onto the metal tray.
A water cup jumped.
“Then explain the fifty million.”
Victor’s confidence collapsed.
He pulled out his phone, fumbling with the screen as if he could erase six years with his thumb.
“You’ve been through a trauma,” he told me. “You don’t understand what happened on that mountain.”
“I understand your hands were on my shoulders.”
“It was slippery.”
“You said our baby wouldn’t suffer for long.”
His face lost its remaining color.
Adrian opened the folder.
“We have your claim submission, the forged medical examination, the fabricated beneficiary form, and the location data showing that you filed while Elena was still alive.”
Victor looked toward me.
“You don’t know him,” he said, pointing at Adrian. “He abandoned your mother. Now he’s using you to protect his company.”
Adrian did not react.
The accusation was meant for me.
The old Elena might have grabbed it. She might have questioned everyone except the man standing closest to her.
Instead, I looked at Victor’s shoes.
A thin white line remained along the sole.
Mountain salt.
“You changed clothes before speaking to police,” I said.
Victor glanced down.
“But you wore those shoes to the cliff.”
He took one involuntary step backward.
Adrian lifted a concealed photograph from the folder.
It showed Victor at a gas station outside Aspen, buying two gasoline containers and a roll of plastic sheeting three days before the trip.
Victor’s lips parted.
I understood then that the cliff had not been his only plan.
If the fall failed, he had prepared another way to dispose of me.
The hospital door opened.
Two investigators entered.
Victor turned toward them.
“This is a family misunderstanding.”
“No,” I said. “A misunderstanding is forgetting an anniversary.”
My voice trembled, but I did not look away.
“You hunted me.”
The investigators did not arrest him yet. They wanted him to believe he still had room to talk.
Victor looked at Adrian.
“You think she’ll forgive you because you pulled her out of the snow?”
Adrian’s fingers tightened around the folder.
“I don’t expect forgiveness.”
For the first time, someone in my life refused to disguise selfishness as love.
Victor looked back at me.
“Elena, I can explain.”
“You have a funeral to attend.”
His face changed.
He realized what I meant.
The chapel was already full.
May you like
His family, our friends, his business partners, and Serena were waiting to watch him mourn the woman he had tried to kill.
I intended to be there too.
