Chapter 3 - The Ghost from the River
The warm ambient lighting of the steakhouse suddenly felt incredibly cold.
A tight close-up captured Jason’s face. The devastating, crushing guilt he had carried for seven long years shattered in a fraction of a second. All the color violently drained from his face, leaving him looking like a terrified ghost. His dark eyes widened in pure, breathless shock as he stared at the waitress.
"She lived," Amanda whispered softly, a single, heavy tear falling down her cheek. She looked at the former deputy with a soft, intensely determined smile. "My daughter lived."
Jason’s legs completely gave out. He physically collapsed backward into the leather booth, his hands shaking uncontrollably.
To understand the absolute, bone-chilling horror completely paralyzing the former deputy, one had to look back at the worst night of his entire life. Seven years ago, a horrific car crash sent a young mother and her three-year-old daughter plunging into the freezing, violently rushing river at midnight.
Jason was the first deputy on the scene. He had dove blindly into the freezing black water without a second thought. He had found the sinking car, grabbed the little girl, and told the screaming mother, "Look at me. Not the water. I've got you."
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But a massive piece of debris had violently struck Jason in the darkness. He was swept downstream, nearly drowning himself. When he woke up in the hospital, his commanding officer told him the horrific, crushing news.
👉 Jason was told they both died, entirely unaware that the man who delivered the news was a manipulative monster.
