The gravel on the driveway crunched under the tires of a swift car. In the past, this sound meant happiness in the Henderson home, but now it only meant fear.
Sarah stood at the kitchen window, her hand shaking a little as she held her coffee cup. This was the third time this week. Emily got out of the crimson automobile when it stopped. Her daughter. Emily used to be the light of their life, but now she looked like a ghost of herself—thin, agitated, and with eyes that moved about like a trapped animal.
And, as always, Mark’s shadow was over her. He stayed in the car. He sat in the passenger seat, wearing sunglasses and tapping on his phone, like a vulture. Mark was the man whom Sarah had begged Emily not to marry. The person who bets. The man who had transformed their smart, beautiful daughter into a begging woman.
“Tom, she’s back,” Sarah murmured.
Tom was seated at the kitchen table and reading the newspaper. His shoulders drooped, though. He looked like he was twenty years older than he was a year before. “I’ll take care of it, Sarah. You stay here.”
The door to the front of the house flew open. Emily didn’t say hi. She didn’t ask how they were doing. She marched right into the corridor, her voice already high with panic.
“Dad! I need to talk to you. Now! I need to talk to you urgently, as it’s crucial for my survival!
Tom rose up, his face hard as stone. “In the study. By yourself.”
He led Emily inside his office and shut the massive oak door behind them. Sarah stood in the hall and listened. She couldn’t understand the words, but she could tell by the tone. It was the sound of a daughter imploring, pleading, and wailing. Then, a rare, loud boom of finality came from the father’s voice.
Bang.
Sarah jumped as she heard something heavy, like a lamp or a bookend, hit the wall.
A second later, the door opened. Emily left in a rage. Her face was pallid and contorted into a mask of pure, unmitigated hate. She went by Sarah without looking at her, her eyes frigid and dead. She didn’t appear like a daughter anymore; she looked like a stranger who wanted to hurt her.
A little later, Tom came out. His hands were shaking a lot while he fixed his tie. He stared at the broken lamp on the floor and then at his wife.
“It’s done,” Tom remarked, his voice scratchy. “She won’t bother us anymore.”
“What did you do?” Sarah asked, her heart racing with anxiety.
Tom said something vague like, “I did what I had to do.” “Let’s not talk about it.” Let’s just leave the house. Let’s drive up to the Ridge. “I need some fresh air.”
The canyon’s meandering roadways were drenched in golden sunlight, making it a lovely afternoon for a drive. But the automobile was hushed. They were getting close to the Devil’s Elbow, a famous hairpin turn with a straight plunge to the valley floor below.
Tom hit the brakes to slow down.
Nothing took place.
He hit them again, this time harder. The pedal hit the floor with a terrible, empty thump.
“Tom?” Sarah asked, seeing the fear in his eyes.
Tom gasped, “The brakes!” as he pumped the pedal hard. “Sarah, the brakes are gone!” “They’re gone!”
As the hill got steeper, the automobile sped up and gravity took over. The guardrail of the Devil’s Elbow was coming at them at 60 miles per hour. Tom pulled on the wheel to try to drift the car, but it was too late.
The world turned upside down with a loud screech of metal and breaking glass. The barrier broke, and the automobile flew into the nothingness.
Sarah’s consciousness came back in waves of terrible anguish. She could smell gasoline and moist dirt.
The automobile hadn’t hit the ground in the valley. It was entangled and hung dangerously in the dense canopy of an old oak tree that was growing out of the cliffside. It swayed softly over a drop of more than a hundred feet.
“Sarah…”
The whisper was next to her. Tom was stuck against the driving wheel, blood pouring from a cut on his forehead, and his leg was bent at an odd angle.
“I’m… She groaned, “I’m here,” and tried to move.
“Don’t move,” Tom growled, holding her hand with unexpected strength. “Hey.”
A voice came down from high above, near the end of the road where the railing was shattered. It was yelling.
“Oh my God! Please help! Please help! My mom and dad!” They went too far!”
Emily was the one. She was crying in a deep, painful way. Sarah felt a little better when she heard her daughter beg for rescue. She opened her mouth to yell, “We are here!”
Tom put his palm over her mouth. His eyes were big and full with fear that Sarah had never seen before.
“Play dead,” he said in a hushed voice. “Be quiet.”
“But—”
“Shhh!”
The crying ceased all of a sudden above them. It was like someone had turned on a switch. Sarah could clearly hear the sound of a call terminating.
Then, Emily’s voice faded away again. But this time, there was no panic. There were no more tears. Her voice was flat, calm, and eerily steady.
“It’s over, Mark,” Emily remarked. It was clear that she was talking to her spouse now. “They went over at full speed. “From this high up? They couldn’t have lived. The automobile is broken.
A break.
“Yeah, I watched it go through the rail. Don’t worry. The cuts on the brakes were clean. Before they look closely, they’ll think it was just wear and tear on an old car. We will have the money by the time they figure it out. The load is finally gone.
Sarah’s heart broke into more pieces than the windshield. The agony in her body went away, and in its stead came a cold, numbing fear. Not only did her daughter witness them die, but she also planned it.
The wind moved the automobile in the tree limbs, and it groaned. Sarah turned to Tom. There were tears and blood on his face. He wasn’t crying because he was in pain. He was crying because he realized how horrible what he had made was.
Tom muttered, “I’m sorry, Sarah,” and his voice broke. “This is my fault.” I pushed her. I shouldn’t have put her in that position.
Sarah muttered back, “You would rather not give her money.” “That’s not a good reason to kill us.”
Tom said, “No,” and closed his eyes. “It wasn’t simply the cash. This morning, in the study, I told her she had to do something.
He took a rough breath.
“I told her I was done giving Mark money to gamble with. I informed her that if she didn’t file for divorce, I would stop talking to her. But I went above and beyond. I warned her, “If you’re still married to that leech by 9:00 AM tomorrow, I’m going to the lawyer’s office.” I will change my will so that all of my money goes to charity. “You won’t get anything.”
Sarah let out a gasp. “Tom…”
Tom looked at the roof of the crushed automobile and stated, “That’s why she did it today.” “She cut the lines for the brakes…” This afternoon, she tried to kill us so that we would die before 9:00 AM tomorrow. She killed us so the old will would still be valid.
The logic was harsh and impossible to deny. Emily wasn’t only greedy; she had a deadline to meet. The Inheritance Deadline.
An hour later, the sound of sirens came from the road above. But these weren’t the show sirens that Emily had requested. These were the big engines of the Fire Department’s rescue team.
Ropes fell down past the broken windshield. A firefighter in tactical gear climbed down and looked inside the car.
“I see movement!” The firefighter called up. “Two people in the car. “They’re alive!”
Sarah grabbed the firefighter’s arm just as he was about to open the door. She was holding on for dear life.
“Please,” she said in a soft voice, her eyes begging. “You have to pay attention to me. My daughter is up there. She did this. “She wants us to die.”
The firefighter stopped and looked back and forth between Sarah and Tom, taking in the whole scene. He could see the horror in their eyes. They weren’t afraid of falling; they were afraid of the person who was waiting at the top.
Tom said, “She thinks we’re dead.” “If she knows we’re alive before the police get to her, she might try to finish it.” Or she could run away.
The firefighter nodded sadly. He hit his radio. “Command, please be aware. Victims are very important. Getting out now. Code Silent. Put something over their faces.
The extraction was a work of art in trickery. Sarah and Tom were tied on stretchers with breathing masks and large blankets covering their faces. They looked like dead bodies being taken away.
Sarah could hear the sounds of the world coming back as they were pulled up the side of the cliff. And then, Emily’s voice.
“Mom! Dad! Oh no, not that!” Emily was yelling and shoving herself at the police line. “Show me them! “Please tell me they’re okay!
It was an Oscar-worthy performance. Sarah lay under the blanket with her eyes closed, listening to the monster her daughter had become as she grieved for the parents she thought she had killed.
There was a lot going on at the hospital. Emily was in the waiting room, pacing, holding a tissue, and leaning on Mark for support. She was yelling at the doctor to “make arrangements” for the bodies.
Emily said to Mark in a low, hurried voice, “I need to call the lawyer. We need to protect the assets before the investigation starts.”
The twin doors at the end of the hall opened.
The room was quiet.
It wasn’t a doctor with a clipboard. The Police Chief was there. And behind him, on wheelchairs, hurt, bandaged, but definitely alive, came Sarah and Tom.
Emily stopped moving. Her face lost all its color and turned a gray tone that matched the hospital flooring. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. It seemed like she was seeing ghosts.
“Mom?” She made a squeaky noise. “Dad? “You’re… you’re…”
“Alive,” Tom said. His voice was faint, but his eyes were full of fury that scared her. “Sad?”
The Police Chief moved forward, and the handcuffs shone in the fluorescent light. “Emily Henderson, you are being arrested for two counts of attempted first-degree murder.”
As the police got closer to Emily, Mark—the person she had killed for, the man she had given up her soul to save—did the only thing a coward knows how to do.
He pushed Emily toward the police with his body. He jumped back and put his hands in the air.
“It wasn’t me!” Mark yelled, and his voice was high and piercing. “I had nothing to do with it!” I had no idea! She did it all!
Emily tripped and turned to look at him in shock. “Mark?”
“She’s nuts!” Mark yelled at the police, hoping to make a bargain. “She arranged everything! I attempted to stop her! She said she cut the brakes! She claimed she would murder me too if I said anything! I’ll give evidence! “I’ll be a witness! “
“You…” Emily muttered, and the truth hit her harder than the automobile impact. She had given up her family, her spirit, and her freedom to pay off his debts. He sold her out in a flash to rescue himself.
“You don’t get it!” Emily shrieked and turned back to her dad as the cuffs clicked around her wrists. She was crying true tears of fear. “I had to!” You were going to stop me! You were going to give everything to charity first thing tomorrow! I did it for the money for the family! It was mine!
Tom turned to his daughter. He cautiously put his hand in the pocket of his jacket, which was shredded and covered in blood. He took out a piece of paper with a shaking hand. The paper was wrinkled and had his blood on it.
He raised it. It was a check from the bank.
Tom’s voice broke with sadness as he replied, “You really are a fool, Emily.” “I didn’t say I would disinherit you because I despised you. I threatened you because I wanted you to wake up and leave him. Help with planning your estate
He threw the bloody check at her feet.
Tom stated in a low voice, “I went to the bank this morning.” “I closed my retirement account. This is a check for $500,000. It was enough to pay off all of Mark’s debts and give you a new beginning. I was planning to give it to you at dinner tonight.
Emily looked at the check on the ground. The numbers were crimson, but you could still read them.
She didn’t have to kill them. The money was already hers. She had killed the last piece of their love for a fortune that was already in her father’s pocket, waiting for her.
She had tried to kill the only two people in the world who loved her enough to save her. She did this to protect a man who left her to die as soon as he saw danger.
“Not…” Emily cried out in a way that sounded like her soul was breaking. She fell to her knees and tried to grab the check, but the police stopped her. “Not at all! Hey Dad! I had no idea! Please!”
“Get her out of here,” Sarah said. She turned her wheelchair around because she couldn’t stand to look at the monster her daughter had become.
The officers pulled Emily down the corridor, and her shouts bounced off the clean walls. Mark was taken away in handcuffs soon after, even though he protested.
Sarah and Tom were the only ones in the hallway. They were alive, yet they felt like they were dead. They had saved their lives, but they had lost their daughter for a noble cause. They had to pay everything they had to get the truth.
