Chapter 2 - THE HUSBAND WHO CAME TOO LATE
The ambulance doors closed around Elena.
Detective Ruiz remained outside for three seconds.
Then he climbed into the back.
“I’m coming with you.”
The paramedic looked annoyed.
“This is a medical transport.”
“I know.”
Ruiz showed his badge.
“I also know someone may have attempted to harm her more than once.”
That ended the argument.
Elena lay beneath a thin blanket as the ambulance pulled away from Mercer House.
Her heart pounded harder than the siren above them.
The paramedic attached another monitor.
“Baby’s heartbeat is strong.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Those five words were the first good thing she had heard all night.
“Any bleeding?”
“No.”
“Pressure?”
“A little.”
“We’re watching for placental problems and premature labor.”
Elena nodded.
Ruiz sat near her feet.
For once, he did not ask questions.
He waited.
Elena eventually opened her eyes.
“My father.”
Ruiz leaned forward.
“We don’t know anything yet.”
“You heard her.”
“I did.”
“Why would Camille know about Adrian’s money before my father died?”
Ruiz hesitated.
That hesitation frightened Elena more than an immediate answer would have.
“You found something.”
Ruiz looked toward the paramedic.
Then back at Elena.
“We found a series of transfers.”
Elena stared at him.
“What transfers?”
“Your husband received money through three shell companies.”
“How much?”
“Eleven point eight million dollars.”
Elena felt cold.
“That’s almost exactly what Camille said.”
“Yes.”
“Where did it come from?”
“We haven’t completed the tracing.”
“Mateo.”
Ruiz rarely heard her use his first name.
He understood what it meant.
Do not protect me with half-truths.
He lowered his voice.
“One of the shell companies received money from a trust connected to your father.”
Elena’s lips parted.
“No.”
“We don’t know whether your father authorized it.”
“He wouldn’t.”
“Elena.”
“He would never give Adrian twelve million dollars without telling me.”
Ruiz nodded slowly.
“That’s why we’re investigating.”
The ambulance turned sharply.
Elena winced.
The monitor beside her changed rhythm.
The paramedic immediately looked down.
“Try to stay relaxed.”
Elena almost laughed.
Her father might have been robbed before he died.
Her husband might have known.
Her husband’s mistress had just pushed her down a staircase.
Relaxation was not an available option.
Her phone vibrated.
ADRIAN CALLING.
Elena stared at the name.
Ruiz noticed.
“Answer it.”
Elena looked at him.
“You want me to?”
“Put it on speaker.”
She accepted.
Adrian’s voice exploded through the phone.
“Elena?”
He sounded breathless.
“Where are you?”
Elena closed her eyes.
“In an ambulance.”
“What happened?”
Ruiz raised one finger.
Let him talk.
Elena kept her voice weak.
“Camille pushed me.”
Silence.
Not shock.
Not confusion.
Silence.
Elena noticed it immediately.
A husband hearing that another woman had pushed his pregnant wife down a staircase should have shouted.
Should have demanded answers.
Should have asked if the baby was alive.
Adrian did none of those things.
Instead, he asked one careful question.
“What did Camille say?”
Ruiz’s eyes met Elena’s.
Elena felt the final piece slide into place.
Adrian cared more about Camille’s words than Elena’s injuries.
“She said a lot.”
“What exactly?”
Elena’s voice turned colder.
“Why?”
“Because she’s unstable.”
“She said you told me to disappear.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“She also mentioned my father.”
This silence lasted longer.
Ruiz slowly reached for his own phone and began recording the call separately.
Adrian finally spoke.
“What did she say about him?”
Elena whispered.
“She asked why you became rich before he died.”
The line remained quiet.
Then Adrian breathed out.
“Elena, listen to me carefully.”
“I’m listening.”
“Do not talk to anyone.”
Ruiz’s jaw tightened.
“Not the police.”
Elena stared at the ceiling.
“Not your mother.”
Her pulse increased.
“Not the hospital staff.”
Adrian lowered his voice.
“I’ll meet you at St. Vincent’s.”
Elena almost smiled.
“You haven’t asked about the baby.”
Adrian stopped.
There it was.
The mistake.
Elena had given him every opportunity.
He had failed every one.
“How is the baby?”
He asked it too late.
Ruiz looked away in disgust.
Elena’s eyes filled with tears.
Not because she wanted Adrian back.
Because she finally understood how thoroughly the man she had loved had disappeared.
“The baby is alive.”
“Good.”
Another wrong answer.
Not thank God.
Not I love you.
Not I’m coming.
Just good.
Then Adrian said something even worse.
“Whatever happens, don’t sign anything.”
Elena opened her eyes.
“What?”
“At the hospital.”
“What would I sign?”
“Just don’t.”
Ruiz wrote something on his notepad.
Elena pressed.
“Why?”
Adrian’s breathing changed.
“I’m trying to protect you.”
“From what?”
“People who want your family’s company.”
Elena said nothing.
Adrian continued.
“They know you’re vulnerable right now.”
Ruiz silently mouthed a word.
Projection.
Elena understood.
Adrian was describing exactly what he had been doing.
The ambulance slowed.
They were reaching the hospital.
Elena asked the question she had once believed she would never need to ask.
“Did you know Camille was going to confront me tonight?”
Adrian answered immediately.
“No.”
Too quickly.
Elena looked at Ruiz.
He noticed too.
Then a second voice came through Adrian’s side of the call.
A man.
Distant.
But clear enough.
“Did she sign the revised trust yet?”
Elena froze.
Adrian pulled the phone away.
“Shut up.”
The call disconnected.
Nobody inside the ambulance moved.
The paramedic looked from Elena to Ruiz.
Ruiz slowly put away his phone.
“Do you recognize the second voice?”
Elena swallowed.
She did.
She had heard it at family dinners.
Board meetings.
Christmas parties.
Her father’s funeral.
“Yes.”
“Who was it?”
Elena stared at the dark ambulance doors.
“My father’s attorney.”
Ruiz’s face hardened.
“Name?”
Elena whispered.
“Charles Whitmore.”
The ambulance stopped.
The rear doors opened.
Hospital lights flooded inside.
But Elena barely noticed.
Because suddenly the conspiracy had expanded again.
Camille.
Adrian.
Charles Whitmore.
And possibly someone who had been moving money before Elena’s father died.
As the stretcher rolled toward the emergency entrance, Ruiz walked beside her.
“Elena.”
She turned her head.
“From this moment forward, assume anyone connected to your father’s estate could be involved.”
Elena nodded.
Then she saw someone standing near the hospital doors.
A tall man in a charcoal coat.
Silver hair.
Cane in one hand.
Her uncle Robert.
Her father’s older brother.
Elena had not spoken to him in almost three years.
May you like
Yet he was already waiting at the hospital.
Before anyone had told him what happened.
