Chapter 12 - THEY TOOK THE WRONG WOMANLena drove her elbow backward.
A man grunted.
She twisted.
Another hand grabbed her arm.
Noah screamed.
“Take the baby!”
Lena shoved Noah toward Ethan.
Ethan caught him.
Marcus tackled one attacker.
Police shouted.
The street became chaos.
Lena saw a second man running toward her.
She grabbed the nearest object.
A fire extinguisher.
“Not again,” she muttered.
She swung.
The cylinder slammed into his chest.
He fell.
“Why do people keep making me do this?”
Marcus pinned the first attacker.
Police cuffed both men.
Ethan rushed toward Lena.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Then what—”
“I’m really angry.”
He almost smiled.
Then the detective pulled the second attacker’s mask away.
Ethan recognized him.
Ryan Bell.
Marcus went rigid.
Ryan had blood running from his lip.
He looked at Ethan and laughed.
“You always did choose difficult women.”
Ethan wanted to hit him.
Instead he handed Noah to Lena.
Then hit him.
Once.
Hard.
The detective grabbed Ethan.
“Enough!”
Ryan spit blood.
“Feel better?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Lena stepped forward.
“Why Claire?”
Ryan looked at her.
For one second, his confidence slipped.
“You really do look like her.”
“Answer me.”
“Margaret paid me.”
“How much?”
“Enough.”
“You killed my sister for money?”
Ryan smiled.
“I didn’t cut the brakes.”
Ethan stopped.
“What?”
“I disabled the GPS tracker and changed her route data.”
“Why?”
“So Margaret’s guy could reach the car.”
“Thomas Reed?”
Ryan shook his head.
“Reed inspected it afterward.”
Marcus frowned.
“Then who cut the brake line?”
Ryan laughed.
“You still don’t understand.”
His eyes went toward Noah.
“Claire wasn’t supposed to be driving that morning.”
Ethan felt cold.
“What?”
“That SUV was scheduled for Ethan.”
Lena looked at him.
Ryan continued.
“The brake line wasn’t meant for Claire.”
Ethan stared.
“Who ordered it?”
Ryan smiled.
“Not Margaret.”
The detective grabbed him.
“Who?”
Ryan said nothing.
Then Noah began crying.
Lena bounced him gently.
Four notes.
The lullaby.
Ryan’s expression changed.
His eyes fixed on Lena.
“Where did you learn that?”
“My mother.”
Ryan’s face drained of color.
“No.”
Lena stepped closer.
“What?”
“Elena used to sing that.”
“You knew my mother?”
Ryan began struggling against the cuffs.
“Get her away from me.”
Lena stared.
“What did you do to Elena?”
Ryan looked terrified now.
“Nothing.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing!”
Marcus grabbed him.
“Talk!”
Ryan shouted over him.
“Elena didn’t die from cancer!”
Lena stopped moving.
Her mother had died twelve years earlier.
Officially from complications following ovarian cancer.
Lena had been sixteen.
Ryan’s next words crushed the air from her lungs.
“Margaret didn’t kill Elena.”
May you like
He looked at Ethan.
“Your father did.”
