Chapter 3 - CRAWL FOR IT
Emma rounded the corner.
Her father was on the floor.
Richard dragged his injured leg behind him, one hand reaching desperately toward a prescription bottle several feet away.
Vanessa stood over him.
Tyler had returned.
He leaned against the bar, laughing.
Richard reached again.
Vanessa placed the toe of her red heel against the bottle.
Then kicked it farther away.
“Come on, Richard. Crawl for it.”
“Dad!”
Emma ran.
Vanessa spun around.
Tyler straightened.
Emma dropped beside Richard.
His face was pale and damp with sweat.
“What happened?”
“I need my medicine.”
Emma grabbed the bottle.
Vanessa said, “Don’t.”
Emma turned.
“Excuse me?”
“He already took a dose.”
Richard shook his head.
“No.”
Vanessa’s voice remained calm.
“You don’t remember.”
Emma looked at the bottle.
Then at Richard.
She helped him sit upright.
His sleeve slid back.
Bruises covered his wrist.
A fresh injection mark darkened the inside of his arm.
Emma stared.
“What did they do to you?”
Richard gripped her arm.
His eyes moved toward Vanessa.
“They’ve been drugging me.”
Silence.
Emma felt something click into place.
The strange confusion.
The locked bedroom.
The syringe.
Richard missing lunch.
His warning not to drink anything.
Then another memory.
The crash.
Emma had visited the impound lot the morning after it happened.
She remembered the crushed driver-side door.
She remembered the police officer saying the impact angle was unusual.
And she remembered a security photograph showing the black SUV seconds before impact.
It had not swerved.
It had accelerated.
Emma looked at Vanessa.
The SUV that had followed Emma today flashed through her mind.
Black.
Same body style.
Same dark grille.
The crash had not been random.
Emma slowly stood.
“You.”
Vanessa backed away.
Emma moved toward her.
“You did this.”
“No.”
“You tried to kill him.”
“No.”
Emma raised her hand.
Vanessa did not flinch.
“Go ahead.”
Emma’s hand stopped inches from her face.
Vanessa looked directly into Emma’s eyes.
“Hit me.”
Emma breathed hard.
“Give Tyler a reason to call the police. Give me witnesses. Give me a violent daughter attacking her father’s wife.”
Emma lowered her hand.
Vanessa smiled.
“There she is.”
Emma wanted to hit her more now.
Instead, she turned toward Tyler.
“Give me Dad’s watch.”
“No.”
Richard looked at Tyler’s wrist.
His face changed.
“I didn’t give you that.”
Tyler’s expression tightened.
Vanessa said, “Richard, you gave it to him last month.”
“No.”
“You did.”
Richard shook his head.
Emma pulled out her phone.
“I’m calling an ambulance.”
Vanessa laughed once.
“You think I’m going to stop you?”
Emma hesitated.
That was not the reaction she expected.
Vanessa continued.
“Take him to any hospital you want.”
“Why are you so confident?”
“Because I have nothing to hide.”
Richard whispered, “She’s lying.”
Vanessa looked down at him.
“No, Richard. You’re confused.”
Emma called emergency services.
Tyler remained silent.
When the ambulance arrived, Vanessa handed the paramedics a thick medical folder.
Every medication was documented.
Every injection had a prescription.
Every bruise had an explanation in Richard’s medical notes.
Emma watched the paramedic read.
Vanessa looked at her.
“You saw one ugly moment and built a murder case around it.”
“You kicked his medicine away.”
“Because he was trying to overdose.”
Richard shouted, “Liar!”
Vanessa did not raise her voice.
“He has been taking pills, forgetting he took them, then demanding more. I kicked the bottle away because I was trying to keep him alive.”
Emma looked at Richard.
He stared back at her desperately.
Vanessa stepped closer.
“You want the truth?”
“Yes.”
“Then ask the hospital to test his blood.”
Emma narrowed her eyes.
“I will.”
“Good.”
Vanessa smiled.
“Because when they do, you’re going to find exactly what his doctor prescribed.”
The ambulance doors closed.
Emma climbed inside with Richard.
Before they pulled away, Tyler approached.
He held something up to the window.
A photograph.
Richard behind the wheel of a black SUV.
Emma stared.
May you like
Tyler mouthed four words through the glass.
Ask him about this.
