Chapter 5 - Chains in the Rain
"Ma'am, don't move," the lead trooper said, his voice dropping into that terrifyingly quiet tone police use right before an arrest.
Judith took half a step backward, her expensive leather loafers slipping in the red clay. "No... no, you don't understand! She's lying! She's an unstable woman! She's my son's mistress, she ruined his marriage!"
"Shut up, Judith," Tessa shrieked from the gurney as medics tried to force an oxygen mask over her face. "I have the voice memos! I have the security footage of you taking the carbon blade from my glove compartment in the parking garage on Tuesday! You said you’d take care of Clara so Grant could collect the policy without a divorce fight!"
A female state trooper immediately stepped behind Judith, grabbing her wrist with practiced efficiency and twisting it behind her back. The loud, metallic *clink* of handcuffs echoed off the damp rocks.
"Judith Montgomery, you are under arrest for attempted first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and reckless endangerment of a minor."
"Clara!" Judith screamed, thrashing against the handcuffs, her expensive blow-dried hair soaking against her skull. "Tell them! Tell them you know I love Grant! I was doing it for him! He was going to lose his partnership! He needed your money without the prenuptial agreement! Clara, look at me!"
I didn't look at her.
I looked down into the ravine where the fire crew had finally sliced through the B-pillar of my Mercedes. They pulled Grant out on a spinal board. His neck was in a rigid cervical collar, his designer suit trousers shredded at the knees, his face pale and grotesque under the emergency spotlights.
As they carried him up the embankment on the rope hoist, his gaze drifted across the cluster of uniforms until it found me.
He coughed, spitting a mixture of rain and blood onto his chest. He looked at me not with gratitude, not with remorse, but with pure, unadulterated venom.
"You..." Grant wheezed, his fingers twitching against the straps. "You knew... you knew the car wasn't safe... you let me take it..."
"I stood in front of the garage door and told you not to drive it, Grant," I said softly, stepping close enough to the gurney so he could hear every word. "I sent you four text messages. I called 911 the second your phone pinged at Tessa's apartment. You didn't crash because of me. You crashed because you couldn't stand the thought of me having control for even five minutes."
"You ruined me..." he whispered, his eyes rolling back as the shock trauma team injected him with a sedative. "You... ruined... everything..."
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"No, darling," I whispered into his ear right before they loaded him into the back of the ambulance. "Your mother and your mistress did that. I just kept the receipts."
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