Richard discovered I was alive the next morning.<\/p>\n
Not from television.<\/p>\n
Not from a reporter.<\/p>\n
From me.<\/p>\n
Investigators had gathered enough to confront him, and under their direction, the truth was allowed to reach him in the most direct way possible.<\/p>\n
He was sitting in a private conference room with his attorney.<\/p>\n
I entered on crutches.<\/p>\n
The room became completely silent.<\/p>\n
Richard looked up.<\/p>\n
For a moment, he didn’t recognize me.<\/p>\n
Then the color disappeared from his face.<\/p>\n
I had bruises along my cheek and arms.<\/p>\n
My ankle was wrapped.<\/p>\n
My body hurt every time I moved.<\/p>\n
But I was standing.<\/p>\n
Alive.<\/p>\n
His lips parted.<\/p>\n
“Amelia?”<\/p>\n
I had imagined this moment while lying awake in the hospital.<\/p>\n
In some versions, I screamed.<\/p>\n
In others, I slapped him.<\/p>\n
In one particularly satisfying version, Richard fell to his knees.<\/p>\n
Reality was quieter.<\/p>\n
I looked at the man I had slept beside for four years.<\/p>\n
“Hello, Richard.”<\/p>\n
He stood so abruptly that his chair rolled backward.<\/p>\n
“Oh my God.”<\/p>\n
He moved toward me.<\/p>\n
I flinched.<\/p>\n
Not deliberately.<\/p>\n
My body remembered him before my mind could control it.<\/p>\n
He stopped.<\/p>\n
Then he started crying.<\/p>\n
“You’re alive.”<\/p>\n
“Disappointed?”<\/p>\n
“What?”<\/p>\n
He looked around the room as though suddenly remembering other people were there.<\/p>\n
“Amelia, I thought you were dead.”<\/p>\n
“I know.”<\/p>\n
“I tried to save you.”<\/p>\n
There it was.<\/p>\n
The lie.<\/p>\n
Instant.<\/p>\n
Smooth.<\/p>\n
Almost offended that I might question it.<\/p>\n
“You slipped.”<\/p>\n
“No.”<\/p>\n
“You were standing too close to the door. There was turbulence\u2014”<\/p>\n
“No.”<\/p>\n
“I grabbed you.”<\/p>\n
“You did.”<\/p>\n
Hope flickered in his eyes.<\/p>\n
“Exactly.”<\/p>\n
“You grabbed me so you could push harder.”<\/p>\n
His face changed.<\/p>\n
Barely.<\/p>\n
But I saw it.<\/p>\n
“You’re confused.”<\/p>\n
I smiled.<\/p>\n
That word.<\/p>\n
Confused.<\/p>\n
For months, Richard had relied on versions of it.<\/p>\n
You’re tired.<\/p>\n
You’re stressed.<\/p>\n
You’re hormonal.<\/p>\n
You’re overthinking.<\/p>\n
You’re misunderstanding.<\/p>\n
Every phrase meant the same thing.<\/p>\n
Don’t trust yourself.<\/p>\n
Trust me instead.<\/p>\n
Not anymore.<\/p>\n
“I’m not confused.”<\/p>\n
His attorney touched his arm.<\/p>\n
Richard ignored him.<\/p>\n
“Amelia, you suffered a traumatic fall.”<\/p>\n
“I remember everything.”<\/p>\n
“I love you.”<\/p>\n
I looked at him for a long time.<\/p>\n
Then I asked the question I had promised myself I wouldn’t ask.<\/p>\n
“Did you ever?”<\/p>\n
He stared at me.<\/p>\n
“Did I ever what?”<\/p>\n
“Love me.”<\/p>\n
His expression cracked.<\/p>\n
For one second, I saw something that might have been shame.<\/p>\n
Or perhaps only fear.<\/p>\n
Then he said:<\/p>\n
“Of course I love you.”<\/p>\n
I nodded.<\/p>\n
“Then why did you call the estate administrator before the search was over?”<\/p>\n
Silence.<\/p>\n
Richard’s attorney closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
Richard looked at him.<\/p>\n
Then at me.<\/p>\n
“I was preparing.”<\/p>\n
“For what?”<\/p>\n
“If you were gone, I needed to protect\u2014”<\/p>\n
“My company?”<\/p>\n
“Our family.”<\/p>\n
“You asked about voting shares.”<\/p>\n
“Because somebody had to think rationally.”<\/p>\n
“And my old will?”<\/p>\n
His face went still.<\/p>\n
“The copy you kept in your office. The one with the inheritance provision highlighted.”<\/p>\n
“Amelia\u2014”<\/p>\n
“You thought it was still active, didn’t you?”<\/p>\n
That was the first moment I knew.<\/p>\n
Not suspected.<\/p>\n
Knew.<\/p>\n
His eyes betrayed him.<\/p>\n
Just for a second.<\/p>\n
I had seen Richard negotiate deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars without blinking.<\/p>\n
But now he blinked.<\/p>\n
I almost pitied him.<\/p>\n
Almost.<\/p>\n
“Here’s what you didn’t know,” I said. “Months ago, I changed everything.”<\/p>\n
His jaw tightened.<\/p>\n
“If I die, you don’t control Hayes Technologies.”<\/p>\n
He said nothing.<\/p>\n
“You don’t control my voting shares.”<\/p>\n
Nothing.<\/p>\n
“You don’t control my child’s trust.”<\/p>\n
His eyes moved toward my stomach.<\/p>\n
I instinctively put my hand over it.<\/p>\n
“And because my death would have been suspicious, every financial benefit connected to you would have been frozen.”<\/p>\n
“That’s not why\u2014”<\/p>\n
“So what was the plan?”<\/p>\n
“Stop.”<\/p>\n
“Was I supposed to disappear into the Pacific?”<\/p>\n
“Stop talking.”<\/p>\n
“Was everyone supposed to believe your pregnant wife accidentally fell?”<\/p>\n
His composure finally broke.<\/p>\n
“I SAID STOP.”<\/p>\n
The room froze.<\/p>\n
Richard breathed heavily.<\/p>\n
There.<\/p>\n
That was the man from the helicopter.<\/p>\n
Not the grieving husband.<\/p>\n
Not the charming investor.<\/p>\n
Not the man who kissed my forehead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Richard discovered I was alive the next morning. Not from television. Not from a reporter. From me. Investigators had gathered enough to confront him, and under their direction, the truth was allowed to reach him in the most direct way possible. He was sitting in a private conference room with his attorney. I entered on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","class_list":["post-418","sr_chapter","type-sr_chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/sr_chapter\/418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/sr_chapter"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/sr_chapter"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/sr_chapter\/418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}