Chapter 10
The boat moved into Mobile Bay.
Coast Guard vessels approached from two directions.
Vivian held Claire upright near the stern.
Jenna stood beside the controls.
Mom pointed a gun toward the pursuing lights.
I watched through a secure feed.
Lily slept in Megan’s lap.
I could not decide whether to wake her.
Then Claire lifted her head.
She looked toward the drone.
Her mouth moved.
“Mark.”
The audio barely captured it.
I covered my face.
She knew we were searching.
The Coast Guard ordered the boat to stop.
Jenna accelerated.
Mom fired into the air.
A warning shot from the Coast Guard struck the engine.
Smoke rose.
The boat slowed.
Vivian pulled Claire toward a small emergency raft.
Mom blocked her.
“This was not the agreement.”
Vivian shouted something the microphone could not catch.
Mom shook her head.
Jenna left the controls and grabbed Claire’s arm.
Mom aimed the gun at her.
“My son has suffered enough.”
Jenna laughed.
“You sold him to me.”
“I helped you after Claire’s death.”
“You helped before.”
Mom’s hand shook.
Vivian stepped between them.
“Margaret, lower the gun.”
“You said Claire would never wake up.”
“She should not have.”
“You told me Jenna would give Mark another family.”
“And she did.”
“You hurt Lily.”
Jenna’s face twisted.
“That child destroyed everything by talking.”
Mom pointed the gun directly at her.
The drone feed showed officers preparing to board.
Vivian saw them.
She grabbed Mom’s wrist.
The gun fired.
Jenna collapsed near the controls.
Claire fell sideways.
Mom and Vivian struggled.
Coast Guard officers boarded.
They pulled Claire away.
Another officer tackled Vivian.
Mom released the gun and raised her hands.
Jenna remained conscious.
The bullet had passed through her shoulder.
She stared at Mom.
“You shot me.”
Mom began crying.
“I should have stopped you before you entered his life.”
It was not redemption.
It was simply the first useful choice she had made too late.
Claire was rushed to a hospital.
Doctors confirmed she had a traumatic brain injury but was medically stable.
She had not been brain-dead.
She had been heavily sedated for much of the past two years.
Repeated medication prevented recovery.
Without it, she might regain more speech and movement.
I stood outside her room with Lily.
A therapist warned me that Claire might not respond normally.
“She may not remember you clearly.”
Lily squeezed my hand.
“She remembers me.”
The doctor allowed us inside.
Claire lay beneath white blankets.
The scar near her temple had faded.
Her face was thinner.
But she was Claire.
Lily stopped at the doorway.
“Mommy?”
Claire’s eyelids moved.
Lily approached slowly.
“I’m Lily.”
Claire looked at her.
Her fingers lifted from the bed.
Lily placed her hand inside them.
Claire squeezed once.
Then twice.
Then three times.
Lily began crying.
“I knew you weren’t gone.”
I knelt beside the bed.
Claire’s eyes moved toward me.
“Claire.”
Her expression changed.
Not joy.
Fear.
She tried to pull her hand away.
I stopped touching the bed.
“It’s okay.”
Her breathing accelerated.
A nurse entered.
Claire looked toward the door and whispered one word.
“Jenna.”
“She is under guard,” I said. “She cannot reach you.”
Claire stared at me.
Then she forced out another word.
“You.”
I did not understand.
She became agitated.
The nurse asked us to leave.
Outside, Megan looked at me.
“She may think you were part of it.”
My stomach dropped.
“I wasn’t.”
“You married Jenna.”
“After I thought Claire died.”
“Claire does not know what you thought.”
Lily stood beside the door.
“Mommy is scared of Daddy?”
I knelt.
“She woke up in a world that does not make sense yet.”
“Are you going to make her talk?”
“No.”
That mattered.
For years, everyone forced Claire’s story into shapes that helped them.
Now we would let her speak at her own pace.
Jenna, Vivian and Mom were taken into custody.
Ryan remained jailed.
The immediate danger seemed contained.
Then the hospital received a court order.
Vivian’s attorney claimed Claire lacked capacity and required an emergency guardian.
The proposed guardian was not Vivian.
It was my brother Ryan.
The filing included a document supposedly signed by Claire before the fall.
May you like
It stated that if she became incapacitated, she did not want me making medical decisions.
At the bottom was Claire’s real signature.
