The Accident Report
Chapter 07 - The Accident Report
Margaret pushed the accident report toward the shredder.
Nora crossed the room and caught the folder before the blades pulled it in. The paper tore between them, but Ethan grabbed the remaining pages.
One sheet contained a photograph of Elaine’s damaged car. Another showed the brake line with a clean cut.
Nora’s knees weakened.
Margaret released the folder. “Your mother was warned.”
“Did you order it?”
“I ordered Shaw to frighten her.”
“That is not an answer.”
Margaret looked toward the tunnel, calculating whether she could escape. “Elaine was emotional. She drove too fast in the rain.”
Ethan held up the photograph. “This inspection was completed before the official police report. How did your foundation obtain it?”
Margaret said nothing.
Detective Park entered with two officers and read Margaret her rights.
As they placed her under arrest, Margaret looked at Nora with pure contempt. “Do you think one deed makes you powerful? The board will never accept you. Donors will leave. Employees will blame you when the foundation collapses.”
Nora picked up the surviving ledgers.
“Then we will build something that doesn’t depend on fear.”
Back in the ballroom, the emergency doors had reopened. Some guests had left, but most remained, unable to look away from the fall of a family they had spent years praising.
Lucas sat alone near the wedding arch. Camille’s hand had left a crease in his sleeve. His bow tie hung loose, and he looked younger than Nora had ever seen him.
“I didn’t know about your mother’s car,” he said when she approached.
Nora believed him.
But belief did not restore trust.
“You knew enough to question the prenuptial agreement,” she said. “You knew enough to ask why your grandmother needed my signature. You chose not to know.”
“I was afraid of losing everything.”
“So you were willing to let me lose myself.”
Lucas lowered his head.
Arthur asked Nora to play the final section of Elaine’s cassette. It contained a board meeting recorded after Elaine discovered the fraud. Lucas, then eight years old, could be heard playing in the hallway while Margaret threatened to take Nora away from her mother if Elaine spoke publicly.
Arthur had interrupted and promised to protect them.
He had failed.
“I cannot ask you to forgive me,” Arthur told Nora. “But I will testify.”
Nora looked around the ballroom, at the flowers, the untouched cake, and the aisle she would never walk down.
May you like
The wedding had ended.
Her mother’s case had finally begun.
