The red folder opened at the foot of my hospital bed.
I could not read the page from where I lay, but I watched its effect through the narrowest possible slit between my eyelids.
Marcus stopped breathing.
Victoria gripped the rail of my bed so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
Ms.
Lawson stood between them and Leo, wearing the same charcoal suit she had worn when I signed my new estate documents two weeks earlier.
Two hospital security officers remained behind her.
A nurse hurried toward my monitors while an administrator unlocked the door fully.
Marcus recovered first.
“This is a private family matter,” he said.
“You have no right to storm into my wife’s room.”
“You locked a child inside a critically injured patient’s room,” the administrator replied.
“Nothing happening here is private now.”
Ms.
Lawson kept her eyes on Marcus.
“The document in front of you is a preliminary forensic inspection of Valerie’s vehicle.”
Victoria’s hand slipped from the rail.
Marcus glanced down again.
“A preliminary report proves nothing.”
“It proves the rear hydraulic brake line was severed before the collision.”
Leo made a small sound beside me.
Every muscle in my body wanted to reach for him, but Ms.
Lawson’s earlier advice echoed in my mind from another time: Never reveal your position before you understand theirs.
I remained still.
Marcus pushed the folder away.
“The line could have been damaged during the crash.”
“The investigator specifically ruled that out,” Ms.
Lawson said.
“The cut was clean.
It was made with a tool while the vehicle was stationary.”
Victoria stared at Marcus.
He did not look at her.
Instead, he pointed toward me.
“My wife is dying.
You arrive with an unsigned report and frighten my son with some ridiculous theory.”
“Your son called me twenty-three minutes ago.”
Marcus’s expression changed.
Leo reached into the lining of his jacket and removed a small phone.
Its screen faced his palm, hidden from Marcus.
“I told you I didn’t have it in my backpack,” he said.
Ms.
Lawson’s voice softened.
“The call stayed connected, Leo.
You did exactly what your mother taught you.”
Marcus lunged toward him.
One of the security officers stepped forward and blocked his path.
“Do not touch the child.”
“He is my son.”
“Then you should not have threatened to take him somewhere he would learn to keep his mouth shut,” Ms.
Lawson said.
Victoria’s lips parted.
“That was taken out of context.”
“So was calling Valerie an empty shell?”
Marcus’s face flushed.
“People say things under stress.”
“And discussing how to move Leo away from attorneys once Valerie died?”
