Chapter 6 - NO BODIES
For three days, divers searched the river.
The current was strong from the storm.
Police boats moved between the bridge and the reservoir.
Volunteers walked the banks.
Elena remained hospitalized, watching every update on television.
Silas controlled who entered her room.
He told the nurses she became agitated easily.
He told relatives not to question her about the crash.
He told detectives she had been under emotional pressure because of their marital problems.
When Elena tried to describe the black SUV, Silas interrupted.
“She was unconscious for almost fifteen minutes.”
Detective Torres looked at Elena.
“Do you remember the vehicle striking you?”
“Yes.”
“What color was it?”
“Black.”
“Did you see the driver?”
Elena looked toward Silas.
His expression warned her.
“My husband.”
Silas sighed.
“This is what I was afraid of.”
Detective Torres asked him to leave.
He resisted until a nurse stepped in.
Once the door closed, Elena began crying.
“I know what I saw.”
“Tell me everything,” Torres said.
Elena described Margot holding Sophie.
She described the man carrying Lily.
She described Silas looking into the wreck and closing the door.
But the hospital had already given her medication before the interview.
Her memories came in broken pieces.
Some details were sharp.
Others disappeared when she reached for them.
Torres wrote everything down.
“We found no tire marks from another vehicle,” she said carefully.
“The rain washed them away.”
“That is possible.”
“Do you believe me?”
“I believe you believe what you remember.”
It was not enough.
The Mercer Global offices produced security footage showing Silas entering the building at 7:42 p.m.
Another camera showed Margot arriving shortly afterward.
Neither was seen leaving before 9:30.
The crash occurred at approximately 8:31.
Elena felt the truth slipping from her hands.
Samantha arrived that evening after learning about the accident.
Silas tried to prevent her from entering.
Samantha threatened to seek an emergency court order.
She found Elena alone with two unsigned documents on the bedside table.
One granted Silas temporary authority over medical decisions.
The other allowed him to act on behalf of Lily and Sophie’s trust while Elena recovered.
“Did you ask for these?” Samantha demanded.
Elena shook her head.
Samantha tore the documents in half.
Silas entered moments later.
“What are you doing?”
“Protecting my client.”
“She is my wife.”
“She is also injured, medicated, and being pressured to sign financial documents.”
Silas’s face hardened.
“This is about my children.”
“Then why are you asking for control of their shares before rescue teams have stopped searching?”
Silas had no answer.
That night, Samantha checked the parental account connected to Lily’s watch.
The device was offline.
Its last location appeared near South Ridge Bridge.
But one setting had changed after the accident.
An automatic audio recording had started at 8:29 p.m.
The file had never uploaded.
Samantha stared at the screen.
The watch was still somewhere.
And if it ever connected to Wi-Fi again, the cloud might receive everything it had heard.
May you like
👉 While Silas prepared two ceremonial coffins, Samantha waited for a child’s missing watch to come back online.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━