Chapter 3 - The Unraveling
"Ryan?" David’s voice was barely audible. It sounded like a dry branch snapping in the winter wind. "Is... is that true?"
"No! Dad, she’s lying!" Ryan yelled, his voice rising into a panicked squeak. "This crazy lawyer is just trying to cover for Margaret! They’re in it together! They’re trying to set me up!"
"Show me your phone," David said.
"What?"
"Show me your phone, Ryan. Right now." David took a step toward his son. Something ancient, dark, and dangerous was awakening inside David’s chest—a horrific realization that he had been systematically manipulated into destroying the woman who loved him most in the world.
"No! You’re taking her side over mine?!" Ryan shouted, backing away toward the exit doors. "I’m your son, Dad! I’m your blood! She’s just some woman you married!"
"Show me the phone!" David roared, stepping forward and grabbing Ryan by the lapels of his heavy winter jacket.
"Get off me!" Ryan shoved David hard.
David stumbled backward over a coffee table, crashing to the floor in a heap of scattered magazines and cold plastic cups. By the time he scrambled back to his feet, Ryan had burst through the automatic sliding doors and was sprinting through the snowy parking lot toward David’s SUV, the keys jingling loudly in his hand.
"Ryan! Stop!" David screamed, running out into the freezing air, but he was in his house slippers and thin trousers.
The SUV’s engine roared to life. Tires shrieked against the icy asphalt, throwing up a cloud of slush, and the vehicle sped away into the darkness, its taillights disappearing into the white fog of the storm.
David fell to his knees in the slush, the bitter cold biting through his clothes, but he couldn't feel it. The cold inside his soul was far worse than anything the Vermont winter could inflict.
Eleanor walked out of the hospital entrance, holding her phone to her ear. She looked down at David with cold, unyielding pity.
"Police Department?" Eleanor spoke clearly into her phone, ignoring David entirely. "My name is Eleanor Vance. I am reporting a stolen vehicle, grand larceny, and a suspected fleeing felon. The suspect is Ryan Ellis..."
David pulled himself up from the wet snow, his body shaking violently. "Eleanor... please..."
"Don't 'Eleanor' me, David," she said, cutting her phone call and looking at him with eyes as cold as flint. "You made your choice tonight. You chose a serpent over a saint. Margaret survived cancer, she survived years of your son's passive-aggressive cruelty, but she almost didn't survive you."
"I need to see her," David sobbed, his hands covered in dirty snow. "I have to fix this!"
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"You can't fix a broken neck, David, and you can't fix what you did to her heart tonight," Eleanor said quietly. "If she survives this night, I will personally make sure she never sets eyes on you or your son ever again."
Eleanor turned on her heel and walked back inside the hospital, leaving David standing alone in the dark, empty parking lot, surrounded by the falling snow and the deafening echo of his own catastrophic mistake.
