Chapter 2 - The Hospital Interrogation
I forced my eyes to dart away from the glowing screen before Matt realized I had seen the message.
My heart pounded furiously against my ribs like a trapped, desperate bird.
Matt quickly slipped the phone into his jacket pocket and offered me a sympathetic, fake smile.
"Are you going to be okay, Olivia?"
I nodded slowly, staring blindly out the passenger window as we pulled out of the driveway.
My mind raced through a thousand terrifying scenarios as the suburban houses blurred past me.
If Mark had texted Matt about keeping me distracted, my husband was undeniably involved in this nightmare.
We arrived at the downtown police precinct in complete, suffocating silence.
The lead detective, a sharp-eyed woman named Ramirez, escorted me into a sterile interview room.
She offered me a cup of cheap coffee, which I declined with a trembling hand.
"I am so sorry about your sister, Olivia," Detective Ramirez began softly.
She opened a thick manila folder and slid a high-resolution photograph across the metal table.
It was a picture of the severely damaged vehicle that had struck Emily.
"We found the car abandoned in an industrial park just ten miles from the crime scene."
I stared at the crumpled front bumper and the shattered windshield, feeling physically sick.
"Why are you showing me this?"
Detective Ramirez leaned forward, her dark eyes analyzing my every single micro-expression.
"The car is registered to a private shell corporation called Apex Holdings."
I frowned, the name sounding vaguely familiar but entirely disconnected from my brother.
"Mark doesn't own any companies, he can barely hold down a minimum-wage job."
The detective sighed and pulled out a secondary financial document from her folder.
"Apex Holdings is a secret LLC registered entirely under your husband's name."
The walls of the tiny interrogation room felt like they were rapidly closing in on me.
Matt had provided the weapon that my brother used to run down my own sister.
I abruptly stood up from the metal chair, desperate for fresh air.
"I need to go to the hospital to see Emily right now."
Detective Ramirez nodded understandingly and offered to have an officer escort me.
I walked out into the precinct lobby, completely ignoring Matt as he tried to grab my arm.
"Olivia, where are you going?"
I pulled away from him with a look of pure, unadulterated disgust.
"Do not ever touch me again, Matt."
I left him standing in the lobby and rode in the back of a police cruiser to the city hospital.
The intensive care unit smelled of harsh antiseptics and quiet desperation.
I found Emily's private room at the end of a long, sterile corridor.
To my absolute shock, my father was standing right outside her door, arguing with a nurse.
He had apparently posted bail using the emergency funds I had refused to provide.
When he saw me approach, his face twisted into an ugly mask of pure rage.
He shoved the nurse aside and stormed aggressively toward me.
"This is all your fault because you were too selfish to wire the money!"
I stood my ground, staring into the eyes of a man I no longer recognized.
"You tried to protect the monster who ran over your own daughter."
My father let out a dark, menacing laugh that chilled me to the bone.
"Emily was going to ruin everything, Olivia, and she absolutely deserved what she got."
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Before I could even process his horrific confession, my father reached into his heavy winter coat.
He pulled out a black, heavy-caliber handgun and aimed it directly at my chest.
