Chapter 6 - The Truth About Audrey’s Final Day
Marco found the money trail three weeks later.
Victor Hale had been paid through shell companies connected to my former business partner, Richard Voss.
The reason was painfully simple.
After Audrey's death and my paralysis, I had withdrawn from several major harbor expansion deals.
Voss took control.
He made millions.
But the final piece came from Thomas Bennett himself.
I visited him with Grace and Lily.
The old doctor sat beside a window in a modest house outside the city.
When he saw me in the wheelchair, his eyes filled with tears.
“Dr. Bennett,” I said.
His right hand trembled as he reached for a writing pad.
He slowly wrote:
SORRY.
“You tried.”
He shook his head.
Then wrote:
NOT ENOUGH.
I understood that feeling.
I had spent eight years believing I'd failed Audrey because I survived the crash and she hadn't.
I placed my hand over his.
“You gave me something nobody else did.”
He looked at me.
“Hope.”
Lily climbed beside her grandfather.
“Show him.”
Thomas looked at Grace.
She nodded.
He pulled an old envelope from a drawer.
Inside was a copy of his original evaluation.
His conclusion was clear.
My spinal injuries were serious, but preserved neurological responses made a permanent total-loss prognosis premature.
Hale had suppressed it.
Voss had financed the suppression.
The accident itself, however, had been exactly that.
An accident.
No conspiracy had killed Audrey.
Strangely, that mattered.
I could fight betrayal.
But I didn't want Audrey's memory turned into another crime.
Richard Voss was eventually arrested for fraud, bribery, and conspiracy related to the falsified medical records and financial schemes.
Hale lost his license and faced charges of his own.
I expected revenge to feel satisfying.
It didn't.
Walking did.
Six months after Lily entered my garden, I crossed the rehabilitation room using parallel bars.
Ten steps.
Then fifteen.
Then twenty.
One afternoon, Lily stood at the opposite end.
“No hands.”
Nathan nearly dropped his clipboard.
“Absolutely not.”
I smiled.
“Finally, something we agree on.”
Lily rolled her eyes.
“You two are boring.”
Nathan looked at me.
“Ready?”
I released one hand.
Then the other.
My knees trembled.
Lily's smile disappeared.
For once, she understood the seriousness of the moment.
I shifted forward.
One step.
Then another.
Then a third.
My knee buckled.
Nathan caught me.
I cursed.
Lily crossed her arms.
“Again.”
I stared at her.
“You're becoming extremely annoying.”
“Again.”
I repositioned myself.
Nathan smiled.
“She's right.”
“Both of you are fired.”
May you like
Neither moved.
So I tried again.
