Chapter 2 - SHE DIED ON TUESDAY
Clara died Tuesday night.
Alex landed Saturday.
Four days.
Teresa explained the official story first.
Clara had collapsed in the upstairs study.
Paramedics arrived.
They could not revive her.
Preliminary cause:
sudden cardiac arrest.
Clara had a documented history of supraventricular arrhythmia.
Usually controlled.
Rarely dangerous.
Alex knew.
She had been hospitalized once at twenty-eight.
No major event since.
He stared at Teresa.
“Why didn’t anyone reach me?”
“We tried.”
“With what?”
“Your phone.”
“It was dead.”
“Hotel.”
“I changed hotels Tuesday.”
Teresa looked away.
Derek said:
“We called your company.”
Alex turned.
“Who?”
Derek hesitated.
“I did.”
“When?”
No answer.
Alex’s assistant, Molly Greene, stood near the doorway.
She stepped forward.
“I never got a message.”
Derek looked at her.
Molly continued:
“We got one email Thursday from Teresa asking whether Alex had returned yet.”
Thursday.
Two days after Clara died.
Alex’s face changed.
Teresa said:
“We were in shock.”
Alex stared.
“You waited two days?”
“No. We tried other ways.”
“Show me.”
No one moved.
Then Lily tugged his sleeve.
“Mommy called you.”
Alex crouched.
“When?”
“The night she fell.”
Teresa flinched.
Alex saw it.
Not fell.
Teresa had said collapsed.
Lily said fell.
Small difference.
May you like
Maybe nothing.
Maybe everything.
