Chapter 8 - Serena’s Bargain
Serena lasted five days in custody before asking for a deal.
She offered information in exchange for reduced charges.
David attended the interview behind one-way glass.
Serena entered wearing a gray uniform, her hair tied back. Without makeup and expensive clothes, she looked younger than thirty-one. Frightened. Angry. Still convinced she had been treated unfairly.
“I didn’t starve Maya,” she told the prosecutor. “Mom did.”
“You removed food from the apartment.”
“Mom said Maya was hiding money and pretending to be helpless.”
“You took infant formula.”
“We were coming back.”
“You boarded a flight reservation for the next morning.”
Serena looked down.
The prosecutor placed photographs on the table: Maya’s injuries, Noah in the neonatal unit, the empty kitchen.
Serena’s mouth trembled.
“She said nobody would get hurt.”
“Who is she?”
“My mother.”
“What did Victor Cross promise you?”
Serena froze.
The prosecutor waited.
Finally she whispered, “Protection.”
From behind the glass, David leaned forward.
Serena said Victor had contacted Evelyn three months earlier after a private investigator spotted Jonah meeting Maya. Victor warned that if Jonah gained access to the trust records, everyone could go to prison.
He told Evelyn to discredit Maya.
“Why Maya?” the prosecutor asked.
“Because David listens to her.”
“What was the plan?”
“Make her look unstable. Make it seem like she couldn’t care for Noah. Mom wanted temporary guardianship.”
“And the starvation?”
Serena began crying.
“It wasn’t supposed to go that far.”
“Did you see your mother shove Maya?”
“Yes.”
“Did you call for help?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Mom said if I betrayed her, she would tell the police I caused Dad’s accident.”
David’s breath stopped.
The prosecutor slid another photograph across the table.
It showed Thomas’s car after the crash.
“What happened that night?”
Serena covered her face.
“I was fourteen. David and Dad were fighting. Dad wanted to tell him about Jonah. Mom gave David pills because he was panicking.”
“What pills?”
“I don’t know. She said they would calm him.”
David closed his eyes.
Serena continued.
“Uncle Victor came. He put David in his car. Dad drove away. Victor followed him.”
“Were you in Victor’s car?”
“Yes.”
“Who forced Thomas off the road?”
Serena looked toward the one-way glass, as though she could see David behind it.
“Victor.”
The room seemed to contract.
“Why did Evelyn blame you?”
“She said if anyone asked, I grabbed the wheel. She made me repeat it until I believed I had.”
“What happened to David?”
“He woke up when the cars hit. He tried to get out. Victor injected him with something.”
David remembered a sharp pain in his arm.
A serpent ring above him.
Rain on his face.
The flash of headlights as Thomas’s car broke through the guardrail.
The missing hour returned in pieces.
He saw Victor dragging him into the second vehicle.
He heard Serena screaming.
He heard Evelyn’s voice on speakerphone saying, “Finish it.”
David left the observation room and vomited in a trash bin.
Later, Hale found him in the hallway.
“We have enough to arrest Victor for conspiracy and potentially homicide,” the detective said. “But we can’t locate him.”
David wiped his mouth.
“He’s going after Jonah.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Jonah is the only living witness who can connect him to Elise and St. Gabriel’s.”
David called Jonah.
No answer.
He called again.
The third time, someone answered.
Not Jonah.
Victor’s voice came through calmly.
“Hello, David.”
“Where is he?”
“Come alone to the old St. Gabriel’s building.”
“Is Jonah alive?”
May you like
A pause.
“For the moment.”
