The only mistake in the plan was painfully simple.
I stopped the car.
Marcus had apparently expected me to continue driving.
The staged look-alike photograph could later be presented as evidence that I had met Eleanor secretly.
Instead, I became the person who called emergency services, stayed with her, spoke to paramedics, and created dozens of independent witnesses proving exactly where I had been.
My act of kindness hadn’t simply saved Eleanor from being alone during a terrifying moment.
It had destroyed the timeline of Marcus’s entire scheme.
But Marcus had disappeared.
His phone was off.
His car had been abandoned near the airport.
Claire stood trembling near the windows.
“I married him.”
Eleanor embraced her.
“You didn’t know.”
“I slept beside him.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I gave him everything.”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“So did I.”
That evening, as investigators prepared to leave, Claire approached me.
