Chapter 7 - THE NIGHT OF THE CRASH
The detective called Ethan two days later.
They had recovered deleted messages from the second phone and located a
former employee of Adrian’s private security company. The man had
handled logistics for several of the company’s executives.
He had also been paid to follow Ethan in the weeks before the cycling
accident.
“Was my crash arranged?” Ethan asked.
“We have evidence that someone monitored your route and obtained details
about your training schedule,” the detective said. “We are still
establishing whether the accident itself was deliberately caused.”
Ethan gripped the phone.
“Who?”
“An employee named Colin Reeves. He has agreed to cooperate.”
The next day, Reeves gave a statement. He admitted that Adrian had asked
him to interfere with Ethan’s bicycle before a scheduled ride. Reeves
claimed he had been told it was a prank intended to frighten Ethan into
abandoning his planned trip.
The detective did not accept the explanation at face value.
A forensic review of the bicycle and the maintenance records revealed
deliberate interference with a component that should never have been
loosened. The crash was no longer being treated as an ordinary accident.
Sophia and Adrian had not merely exploited Ethan’s disability.
They might have helped create it.
Ethan sat quietly after the detective left.
For months, he had replayed the crash in his mind. The wet road. The
sudden loss of control. The sound of his helmet striking the pavement.
He had blamed himself for riding too fast.
Now he had to live with the possibility that someone had planned it.
Naomi sat beside him.
“You don’t have to decide what to feel today.”
“I don’t know what I feel.”
“That’s allowed.”
He looked down at his legs.
“I thought the worst thing was that I might never walk again.”
Naomi waited.
“Now I know someone wanted me to believe I was helpless.”
She placed a hand over his.
“You aren’t.”
For the first time, Ethan allowed himself to cry.
Not because he had lost control.
May you like
Because he was beginning to understand how much of his life had been
stolen while he was busy blaming himself.
