Chapter 4 - The Grieving WidowerPreston returned to the resort alone.
He waited forty minutes before entering the main lodge and announcing that his wife was missing.
He performed panic convincingly.
He told the manager that Madison had wandered away while he returned to the car for a blanket. He claimed he searched for her until the storm became too dangerous.
By midnight, search teams were moving through the canyon.
Preston stood beneath an emergency tent, wrapped in a blanket, while cameras filmed him.
“My wife is nine months pregnant,” he told reporters. “Please bring her home.”
He cried at the correct moments.
He accepted embraces from strangers.
He called Elias and spoke in a broken voice.
“There was an accident.”
Elias listened without interrupting.
“Where is my daughter?”
“She fell. I tried to reach her.”
“You said she wandered away.”
Preston froze.
“The police said you reported that she wandered away.”
“I was confused.”
Elias lowered his voice.
“Be very careful about what you say next.”
Before Preston could answer, Elias ended the call.
At 3:00 a.m., Celeste arrived at the resort pretending to represent Madison’s office.
She found Preston alone near the parking area.
“Did you do it?” she whispered.
“It’s done.”
“Did anyone see?”
“No.”
They did not know that a detective had photographed their meeting from an unmarked vehicle.
They also did not know that Madison had been transported to a private hospital under police protection.
The rescue team had initially planned to announce that she had been found alive. However, Detective Mara Quinn from the state police requested a temporary delay.
“If Preston knows she survived, he’ll destroy evidence,” Mara explained.
Madison lay in a hospital bed while doctors monitored her and the baby. She had a fractured wrist, severe bruising, and exhaustion, but there was no internal bleeding.
The baby’s heartbeat remained strong.
Elias arrived before dawn.
When he entered the room, Madison began to cry.
Her father crossed the room and held her carefully.
“I should have listened to you,” she said.
“No. He should never have betrayed your trust.”
Elias looked toward Detective Quinn.
“What do you need?”
“Time,” Mara answered. “Preston believes she is dead. That gives us an advantage.”
Madison wiped her tears.
“What happens now?”
“We let him reveal what he planned.”
The police released a statement saying search teams had recovered Madison’s coat and personal belongings near the river.
They did not claim that her body had been found.
News outlets reported that survival was unlikely.
Preston returned home and immediately accessed Madison’s insurance documents.
Less than twenty-four hours after the disappearance, he contacted Vale Assurance Group and demanded information about the fifty-million-dollar policy.
His call was recorded.
“I understand there may be a waiting period,” he said, “but my wife’s death was witnessed.”
“By whom?” the claims representative asked.
“By me.”
The representative forwarded the recording directly to Elias.
Preston then contacted an attorney about controlling Madison’s voting shares.
Within forty-eight hours, he transferred money from their joint account to a private bank in the Caribbean.
On the third day, Celeste entered Madison’s home using a key Preston had given her.
She carried two suitcases.
From a surveillance van across the street, Detective Quinn watched Preston kiss her in the doorway.
Madison watched the same footage from her hospital room.
She did not cry.
The grief had turned into something colder.
“He didn’t only try to kill me,” she said. “He planned to replace me before anyone had even buried me.”
May you like
Elias closed the laptop.
“Then we will give him the funeral he wants.”
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