Chapter 9 - SERENA’S CHOICE
Serena agreed to a video call.
Not with me first.
With Perrin.
Therapist present.
I waited outside the room.
My son went in carrying the stuffed dog.
Twenty-three minutes later he came out crying.
Good crying.
Bad crying.
Everything crying.
“Mom has short hair.”
“Yes?”
“She remembers dog.”
The stuffed dog had originally belonged to Serena.
“She said she gave him.”
“She did.”
“Mom coming home?”
I knelt.
“That is something Mom decides.”
“Why?”
“Because she has her own home and her own life right now.”
He frowned.
“She your wife.”
“Yes.”
“Then home.”
Four-year-old logic.
I could not explain three years of legal death, brain injury, betrayal, and personal agency.
So:
“Being married doesn’t mean someone has to live somewhere before they’re ready.”
He accepted that reluctantly.
Then Serena agreed to speak to me.
Video.
My hands shook so badly I almost dropped the tablet.
The screen connected.
A woman appeared.
Shorter hair.
Thin.
Small scar near her temple.
Older.
Alive.
Serena.
For several seconds neither of us spoke.
Then she whispered:
“Kiernan.”
I cried immediately.
So did she.
No elegant reunion.
No music.
Just two people staring at three stolen years.
“You’re alive.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you call?”
Her face changed.
“I tried.”
I nodded.
“I know some of it.”
“No. You don’t.”
There.
The larger secret remained.
“What don’t I know?”
Serena looked toward someone off-screen.
Her attorney.
Then:
“Rhea didn’t hide me only because she wanted you.”
“What else?”
“She was protecting someone.”
“Who?”
Serena shook her head.
“I need to show you records.”
“Serena.”
“I’m not doing this over video.”
My chest tightened.
“When?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Where?”
Her attorney gave a secure office location.
I nodded.
Then asked:
“Are you safe?”
“Yes.”
“From Rhea?”
“Yes.”
“From whoever she was protecting?”
Serena’s eyes filled.
“No.”
The call ended.
The next morning I arrived at the attorney’s office.
Serena was already there.
Standing with a cane.
I stopped in the doorway.
She looked at me.
Then placed a thick red file on the table.
Across the cover:
SUTTON FOUNDATION — ACCIDENT REVIEW.
Not my family Sutton.
Her family foundation used our surname after marriage.
Inside was the original crash investigation.
And one page showing that three weeks before Serena’s vehicle went over the mountain road, someone had paid a mechanic to disable a warning sensor.
The payment came from a shell company.
Its authorized representative was not Rhea.
May you like
Rhea had hidden Serena.
But someone else may have wanted her dead.
