Chapter 13 - The Wrong Car
The truth about Nina’s crash came together in pieces.
Nina had switched cars with Chloe.
She knew Ross was watching Chloe’s vehicle.
Her plan was simple: drive Chloe’s car toward the interstate while Chloe left town another way.
Ross followed the wrong woman.
Nina survived the first crash.
That was the part no one had known.
She called 911 from the roadside.
But Calvin Ross was one of the first people to arrive.
By the time paramedics got there, Nina was unconscious.
The official report said her condition deteriorated from internal injuries.
The new investigation found that Ross’s body camera had been turned off for eleven minutes.
Eleven minutes.
Daniel sat beside Chloe in a federal interview room in Maine while she told investigators what Nina had planned.
She had carried the guilt for nearly a year.
“She died because she helped me,” Chloe said over a secure video call.
Daniel took her hand.
“No. She died because someone chose to hurt her.”
It was the first wise thing I had heard anyone say in days.
Mark looked shattered.
“Nina asked me to help after Chloe disappeared. I thought she was gathering documents. I didn’t know she was hiding Chloe.”
Chloe looked at him through the screen.
“I made her promise not to tell you.”
“Why?”
“Because you had already backed out once.”
Mark flinched.
There it was.
A truth worse than fear.
I turned to him.
“What does she mean?”
Chloe answered for him.
“The night before I disappeared, Mark was supposed to meet me at the police station.”
I stared at my husband.
“You didn’t go.”
He shook his head.
“I sat in the parking lot for twenty minutes.”
“And left?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked at me.
“Because I got a photo of you and Ethan through text.”
His voice broke.
“I chose my family.”
Chloe’s eyes filled.
“And I paid for it.”
Mark bowed his head.
No one spoke.
Then Detective Owens entered the room holding her phone.
“They found Ross.”
Daniel stood.
“Where?”
“Outside Portland.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“And Mercer?”
Owens’s expression tightened.
“Still missing.”
Then she looked at me.
“But Ross had your home address, Ethan’s school schedule, and one more address written in his notebook.”
“What address?”
May you like
Owens said two words.
“Denise Carter.”
