“He knows something’s wrong.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know him.” She pressed both hands flat on the table.
“He came back for his phone.
But he was watching my face the whole time he was in here.
That’s what he does.
He watches.”
I pulled the note from my pocket and read it again.
The words didn’t change.
*Daniel has been lying to you.*
“Ava.” I set the note on the table between us.
“I need you to tell me everything.
From the beginning.
All of it.”
She looked at the door once more.
Then she looked at me.
“That night,” she said, “Daniel had been drinking.
Not a little.
A lot.
Chloe called me from upstairs while you were out.
She was whispering.
She said he’d been acting strange all week and she was scared to be alone with him.
She asked me to come over.”
My chest tightened.
“I got there in twenty minutes.
Chloe met me at the door.
Daniel was in the living room.
He told us both to get in the car.
Said he needed to drive.
Said he needed air.” Ava’s jaw tightened.
“Chloe looked at me like she wanted me to say no.
But he was already holding the keys.”
“Why didn’t she call me?”
“She tried.
You didn’t pick up.”
I remembered that night.
I’d been at my sister’s.
We’d opened a second bottle of wine.
My phone had been somewhere in my bag.
“He got on the highway,” Ava continued.
“He was going too fast.
Chloe told him to slow down.
He told her to be quiet.” Her voice dropped to almost nothing.
“Then she grabbed his arm.
And he—”
She stopped.
“He what?”
Ava looked at her hands.
“He pushed her.
Hard.
Into the door.
And that’s when he lost control of the car.”
The kitchen was completely silent.
“The police report said you were driving,” I said.
“He told me what to say before the ambulance arrived.
He said if I told the truth, he’d make sure I went to prison.
