Chapter 3 - The Ledge
I did not remember the fall as one thing. I remembered pieces. Sky. Wind. My own scream disappearing into the mountain. Michael’s face above me, not horrified, not shocked, but satisfied. Then impact. A narrow ledge caught me halfway down, stealing the rest of the fall and replacing it with pain so bright I nearly blacked out.
For a long time, I could not move. Snow settled over my cardigan. My ribs burned. My wrist throbbed. My cheek scraped against ice when I tried to lift my head. But beneath my hands, my baby moved.
That tiny kick pulled me back from the dark.
“Please stay with me,” I whispered. “Please don’t leave me, sweetheart.”
The wind answered. Nothing else.
Then voices drifted from above.
Michael had not left. He stood near the cliff edge with Ashley, his executive assistant, the woman he had told me was “just ambitious” when I noticed how often she called. I could not see them clearly through the blowing snow, but I heard her voice.
“Is she dead?”
Michael laughed softly.
“For fifty million dollars, she’d better be.”
The words cut deeper than the ice. This was not anger. Not an accident. Not a sudden madness on a mountain. It was math. Insurance forms. Beneficiary clauses. Accidental death language. A payout doubled by the unborn child they thought would die with me.
Ashley complained about the cold.
Michael told her they would return to the lodge and make the call when enough time had passed.
May you like
Their footsteps faded.
I lay on the ledge, broken, freezing, and no longer confused about the man I had married. He had not pushed me in a moment of rage. He had brought me here to become paperwork.
