Chapter 9 - The Crash Was Worse Than Dominic Admitted
Caleb’s attorney attacked Dominic’s credibility next.
It was predictable.
If Dominic lied after the crash, why trust him now?
Fair question.
Dominic answered it publicly before anyone could weaponize it privately.
He issued a statement.
Eighteen months ago, I knowingly gave a false account of who was driving the vehicle in which I was seriously injured. Caleb Rowan was driving. I lied to protect him. That decision was mine, it was wrong, and I accept the consequences of correcting it now.
Vincent read the draft twice.
“You don’t need to say ‘knowingly.’”
“Yes, I do.”
“It sounds worse.”
“It was worse.”
That was the point.
Dominic refused to become credible by polishing himself.
He would become credible by stopping.
Then Arthur added another fact Dominic did not know.
The night of the crash, after emergency crews arrived, Caleb had asked Arthur to remove a bottle from the car before police processed the scene.
Arthur refused.
But the request mattered.
Caleb had been thinking about self-protection within minutes of Dominic’s injury.
Dominic closed his eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Arthur’s voice was quiet.
“Because after you lied for him, I assumed you already knew who he was.”
Dominic almost laughed.
That was the tragedy.
Everyone believed somebody else knew enough.
Everyone chose silence based on that assumption.
Later, investigators reconstructed the crash through witness statements.
A bartender remembered Caleb ordering more alcohol than he later admitted.
A valet remembered Dominic trying to take the keys.
A server remembered the argument:
“You’re not driving.”
“I’m fine.”
Then Caleb mocking Dominic for being controlling.
The words sounded disturbingly familiar.
Today’s attack had not emerged from nowhere.
Caleb had spent years treating boundaries as insults.
Dominic’s protection after the crash taught him that consequences were negotiable if relationships were strong enough.
Now Dominic was finally setting a boundary Caleb could not negotiate.
Truth.
And Caleb responded with terror.
Still, the central mystery remained technically open.
Presence.
Motive.
Changing statements.
Ellie’s memory.
All pointed toward him.
But Dominic needed to know whether anyone else helped.
Because Caleb had not serviced the prosthetic.
He had not built it.
He should not have known exactly when the casing could be accessed.
Someone might have told him.
May you like
And the answer to that question arrived from the person Dominic least expected:
Clare.
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