They Faked Their Deaths, I Faked My Recovery Chapter 03
I swallowed back my tears and looked away from him.
I was afraid.
Afraid of the scar on his forehead. Afraid he’d say something I couldn’t unhear.
Graham sighed, and his eyes softened the way they used to.
“Mara, I’m Sloane’s husband now. No matter what you do, that doesn’t change. I’ve got a wife and kids to take care of.”
I dropped my head, smiling even though nothing was funny. When I spoke, my voice came out jagged.
“You’re my husband. You were mine first. What about what you owe me?”
I couldn’t breathe. My whole body was starting to give out, and I grabbed Graham’s arm just to stay upright.
“You promised you’d always keep me safe… Graham, why?”
“Mara Ellison! That’s enough!”
My mother shoved me back, her eyes red and furious. My legs gave out, and I hit the floor.
“Graham is your brother-in-law now. Falling apart won’t change that.”
Before I could say another word, my phone rang. A ringtone I recognized.
The department.
I picked up. It was Chief Calder.
“Mara, Redmont SBI just wrapped their investigation. You’re cleared to come back to Major Crimes.”
“You’re officially cleared of any suspicion regarding Sloane. Turns out her whole disappearance was staged. She was deep undercover.”
“The evidence she turned in cracked a major international organ trafficking ring. They’re giving her the Medal of Valor…”
Static filled my ears. My mind went blank.
I didn’t hear the rest.
The organ trafficking case. That was my case. The one I’d been investigating for years.
I didn’t say a word to anyone. I bolted and drove straight home.
I opened the safe. Every piece of evidence I’d spent years collecting, every file I’d nearly died for, gone.
I dropped to the floor and slammed my fists against the ground until my knuckles split.
Arms closed around me from behind.
“Mara, don’t. Don’t hurt yourself.”
I whipped around and went still.
Graham.
And then it hit me.
The safe’s code was Graham’s birthday. He was the only other person alive who knew it.
He did this. He took my evidence and handed it to Sloane.
My face was wet with tears. I grabbed the front of Graham’s shirt and sobbed so hard the words barely came out.
“You gave her my evidence? You gave it to her?”
“I almost died for that evidence, Graham. Over and over. That was my only way back to Major Crimes.”
It was the last case I’d worked before they pulled me off the unit.
I’d gone to photograph a deal going down at an illegal clinic. They caught me and threw me from the third floor. I shattered my left shoulder blade and fractured my spine on impact.
I went undercover as a buyer to get inside their operation.
When they found the wire, they locked me in a flooded cell for three days. I made it out alive, barely, and I kept the evidence.
And Graham had just handed it to Sloane. All of it.
I hit his chest, over and over, as hard as I could.
He let me. His whole body shook with every hit, but he didn’t step back.
“Mara, you owed her this.”
“If it weren’t for you, Sloane never would’ve had to fake her death. She never would’ve lost her career. You owe her more than you can ever pay back. Think of this as a start.”
I opened my mouth to fight back.
But my mother was standing in the bedroom doorway, holding another stack of evidence.
“Mara, I know these last few years have been rough. But Sloane’s had it worse.”
“Sloane always had big dreams. Can’t you just help her out?”
“You’re sisters. What does it matter whose name is on it? Stop being so selfish.”
I laughed.
My whole body shook with it, and the tears wouldn’t stop.
Sisters.
Did Sloane remember we were sisters when she crawled into my husband’s bed?
Did she remember when she took my husband and my son and let me think they were dead? When she destroyed my career and turned everyone I knew against me?
I lunged forward and snatched the files from my mother, tearing them to shreds.
“If you give her one more piece of evidence, I’ll drag her down with me. I’ll die right here in front of you.”
My mother went still.
Her jaw tightened. She pointed a finger at me, her face hardening.
“After everything this family has done for you. You turned your back on us first, Mara. Whatever happens next is on you.”
Graham held my gaze for a long moment, then took my mother by the arm and walked her out.
I closed my eyes. There was nothing left in me. I curled up in the corner and didn’t move.
Outside, the sky went dark.
Graham used to make me chicken noodle soup, no matter how late I got home.
Before he walked out that door just now, he’d left a bowl on the counter.
I pulled myself off the floor, picked up the bowl and poured every last drop into the trash. It was cold.
Then I sat down at my computer, pulled up the full evidence chain, and posted a video exposing everything.
[Stolen evidence always has gaps. And I kept the pieces that mattered.]