Chapter 10 - THE ACCIDENT
Roberto had spent five years forcing himself not to revisit Elena’s accident.
Rainy road.
Steep curve.
Brake failure.
Guardrail.
The police investigation had concluded mechanical malfunction.
No criminal activity.
Roberto had accepted it because the alternative was unbearable.
Now he reopened every file.
Marcus located the original mechanic.
Luis Moreno had retired to Arizona.
They spoke by video call.
The older man remembered the vehicle immediately.
“A Mercedes.”
“Black.”
“Front end destroyed.”
Roberto leaned toward the screen.
“Were the brakes defective?”
Luis became quiet.
“The official report said hydraulic failure.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
The mechanic looked away.
Roberto waited.
Finally Luis spoke.
“The line was damaged.”
“Accidentally?”
“I didn’t think so.”
Roberto stopped breathing.
“Why wasn’t that in the report?”
“It was.”
“In my first report.”
“What happened to it?”
“A lawyer came.”
“What lawyer?”
Luis stared at the camera.
“Sebastian Cross.”
Roberto closed his eyes.
“He said the family wanted privacy.”
“He said Mrs. Salazar’s death was tragic enough.”
“He asked me to revise the language from intentional damage to undetermined damage.”
“Did he pay you?”
“No.”
“He threatened to destroy my business.”
Roberto turned away from the screen.
For years he had blamed himself for being in London the night Elena drove home alone.
For years Sofía had carried the invisible guilt of surviving a crash that killed her mother.
Now Roberto understood something horrifying.
Elena might not have died in an accident at all.
He confronted Sebastian that night.
Not in the mansion.
At the police station.
Detectives were already present.
Sebastian looked exhausted.
When Roberto placed the mechanic’s statement in front of him, he began shaking.
“I didn’t cut the brakes.”
“Who did?”
“I don’t know.”
“You changed the report.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Sebastian’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because someone paid me.”
“Who?”
“I never knew.”
Roberto slammed his palm onto the table.
“You destroyed the truth about my wife’s death and never asked who was paying you?”
“I needed money.”
“My father was dying.”
“I had debts.”
“Who contacted you?”
“A man.”
“Name?”
“He used an intermediary.”
“What intermediary?”
Sebastian struggled to remember.
“Bell Consulting.”
Roberto froze.
Richard Bell.
Vanessa’s dead fiancé.
Marcus looked at him.
The connection was impossible to ignore.
Richard Bell had died six years earlier.
Elena died five years earlier.
Vanessa met Roberto three years earlier.
The timelines overlapped.
“Was Vanessa involved?”
Sebastian whispered, “I don’t know.”
Then he added something that made Roberto’s skin go cold.
“But Elena knew her.”
Roberto stared at him.
“No.”
“She never mentioned Vanessa.”
“She wouldn’t have known her.”
Sebastian shook his head.
“She did.”
“Elena came to my office two weeks before the crash.”
“She said a woman named Vanessa had been contacting her.”
Roberto could barely speak.
“About what?”
Sebastian looked at him.
May you like
“About you.”
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