CHAPTER 5 — THE ACCIDENT THAT WASN'T
CHAPTER 5 — THE ACCIDENT THAT WASN'T
The shattering glass echoed through the ballroom.
No one moved.
No one spoke.
Rebecca Sloan held the thick investigation file against her chest as if she had been carrying its weight for years.
Alexander slowly rose from his knees.
His face had turned ghostly pale.
"Don't do this," he whispered.
Rebecca met his eyes.
"I begged you to do it yourself."
"You had twelve years."
"You chose silence."
Professor Carter stepped beside Matthew and Lucy, instinctively placing himself between the children and the growing storm.
"I think they've heard enough."
Rebecca shook her head.
"No."
"Matthew deserves the truth."
Matthew looked from one adult to another.
He understood only fragments.
He knew the room had changed.
The people weren't staring at him anymore.
They were staring at his father.
For the first time in his life, Alexander Vale wasn't the most powerful man in the room.
He was simply the man with the most to answer for.
Rebecca opened the investigation file.
Inside were police reports.
Insurance records.
Private investigator notes.
Email printouts.
Photographs.
She removed one photograph first.
It showed the twisted remains of Isabelle's black sedan resting against a highway barrier.
Lucy shivered.
Rebecca spoke carefully.
"Everyone was told Isabelle lost control of her car."
"That wasn't entirely true."
She placed another photo beside the first.
A close-up of the brake assembly.
Several guests leaned forward.
"The police initially suspected mechanical failure."
Alexander closed his eyes.
"They ruled it accidental."
"They ruled it inconclusive," Rebecca corrected.
"Those aren't the same thing."
A board member stepped forward.
"Why wasn't this public?"
Rebecca answered without hesitation.
"Because someone with considerable influence requested that the investigation end."
Every head turned toward Alexander.
"I didn't kill my wife."
His voice cracked with genuine pain.
"I never said you did."
Rebecca's reply was calm.
"But someone buried questions that should have been answered."
Professor Carter unfolded another document.
"This wasn't in Rebecca's file."
He held up a faded notebook page.
"It was given to me by Isabelle three weeks before she died."
Alexander's breathing stopped.
"You kept that?"
"I promised her I would."
Professor Carter looked toward Matthew.
Then he read aloud.
"If anything happens to me, don't let them tell Matthew I simply had bad luck."
"I've started noticing things that don't make sense."
"Someone has been accessing files in Alexander's office."
"Someone is watching the house."
The ballroom erupted into whispers.
Rebecca raised her hand.
"There's more."
She projected several emails onto the enormous screen behind the stage.
The gala presentation disappeared.
In its place appeared internal ValeWorks correspondence.
One email caught everyone's attention.
DELETE ALL SECURITY FOOTAGE IMMEDIATELY.
Sent two days after Isabelle's death.
Another.
The board agrees this matter should remain private.
Another.
Matthew must never know about the investigation.
Lucy looked at Alexander.
His expression said something unexpected.
Confusion.
Not guilt.
Confusion.
He whispered,
"I never sent those."
Rebecca froze.
"You what?"
"I've never seen those emails."
Evelyn Brooks stepped forward immediately.
"I have."
Everyone turned.
She looked terrified.
"I remember processing those instructions."
Rebecca frowned.
"They came from Alexander's executive account."
Evelyn nodded slowly.
"Yes..."
"...but they weren't signed digitally."
Silence.
She looked toward the board table.
"They were sent while Mr. Vale was in Switzerland identifying Isabelle's body."
The room collectively inhaled.
Alexander couldn't have written emails from two different countries at the same time.
Someone else had used his authority.
Rebecca's face hardened.
"I never checked the server logs."
"You were told they had already been audited."
"I know."
"But I trusted the report."
Professor Carter quietly murmured,
"So the cover-up began before Alexander even came home."
Alexander looked physically ill.
He whispered,
"My God..."
Matthew touched Lucy's arm.
He signed slowly.
Bad people?
Lucy hesitated.
She answered with the only sign she knew.
Maybe.
Suddenly...
An elderly waiter near the back of the ballroom dropped an entire tray of champagne.
The crash startled everyone.
But it wasn't the noise that caught Lucy's attention.
It was the man's face.
He looked terrified.
Not surprised.
Terrified.
He immediately turned toward the service hallway.
And ran.
Lucy instinctively grabbed Matthew's sleeve.
"He's running."
Professor Carter spun around.
"So he is."
Alexander shouted,
"Stop him!"
Security officers raced after the waiter.
The ballroom exploded into chaos.
Three minutes later...
The guards returned.
Alone.
"He disappeared through the underground loading tunnel."
Rebecca frowned.
"Who was he?"
Clara Harper answered before anyone else could.
"I've worked here six years."
"I've never seen that man before."
A chill spread across the room.
Someone had entered the Vale mansion disguised as staff.
And had fled the exact moment the investigation resurfaced.
Rebecca looked toward Alexander.
"This isn't history anymore."
"It's happening again."
Then Evelyn's phone vibrated.
She looked down.
Her face instantly lost all color.
"It's from the ValeWorks archives."
She swallowed hard.
"The entire digital file about Isabelle's accident..."
May you like
She looked up.
"...has just been deleted."
