Chapter 8 - THE INSURANCE PROBLEM
The crash had another layer.
Emma’s car carried comprehensive coverage.
Tyler was specifically excluded from regular use because of his suspended license.
Linda knew that.
Why?
Because two months earlier, she asked Emma whether Tyler could borrow her car for a weekend once his restricted driving privilege changed.
Emma called her insurer.
They warned her.
Do not knowingly allow an unlicensed or excluded driver to operate the vehicle.
Emma told Linda no.
The text messages remained on her phone.
Now Linda wanted Emma recorded as driver.
That could protect Tyler from more than criminal exposure.
It could protect an insurance claim.
If Tyler had taken the car without permission, the coverage analysis became complicated but potentially different.
If Emma falsely claimed she had driven, she could expose herself to insurance fraud allegations.
Linda was asking her injured daughter to commit a new offense to hide Tyler’s conduct.
When Emma’s attorney, Rachel Sloan, explained that at the hospital two days later, something inside Emma finally stopped grieving for her mother.
Not forever.
But enough.
“Did she know that?”
“She knew enough to know you should never make a false statement.”
Emma stared at her purple cast.
Linda had called it pride.
May you like
It wasn’t pride.
She had been asking Emma to inherit Tyler’s consequences.
