The Perfect Couple Chapter 2

After leaving the courthouse, I went back to the scene of the crash. I filed a request for the traffic camera footage, only to be told the cameras in that section had been removed for maintenance.

The footage was gone. The car involved had, I was told, "accidentally" rolled into a lake, destroying any remaining evidence.

Evelyn had been thorough, erasing every trace of Raymond’s crime.

I liquidated my assets, cashed in every favor from my old life, and finally, through a contact at the coroner's office, got my hands on my mother’s full autopsy report.

Multiple comminuted fractures across the body. Evidence of repeated crushing force from a vehicle's tire on the thoracic and abdominal cavities.

The clinical language painted a brutal picture. This wasn’t an accident. It was a deliberate, vicious murder.

I left the morgue, report in hand, ready to file an appeal, but Evelyn was there, waiting for me.

“What are you doing here, Evelyn?”

“I told you, it’s over. Raymond made a mistake.”

“He’s so young,” she pleaded. “Are you really going to destroy his entire life just to prove a point?”

She lunged, tearing the report from my grasp as her bodyguards moved in, heading for the morgue. They were going to take my mother’s body.

I fought, trying to get past her, but she wrapped her arms around me, holding me in an iron grip.

“Let me go! He murdered her, Evelyn! It was murder!”

“Stop it! I said it’s over!”

“On what grounds? He’s a killer! He killed my mother! He has to pay!”

“Ethan, don’t make me do this.”

She had her men drag me to the crematorium. They carried my mother’s body inside and pushed it toward the furnace.

“No!” I thrashed against her, my voice cracking with desperation. “Evelyn, please, let me go! I’m begging you… She was murdered. You can’t do this…”

“You’re a lawyer. You know the truth. How can you help him destroy the evidence?” My throat was raw from screaming.

For a moment, I saw a flicker of something in her eyes—pity, perhaps—but her grip never loosened.

“I’m sorry, Ethan. But Raymond is my line in the sand. I won’t let anyone hurt him. Not even you.” Her voice was a low, chilling promise. “When this is all over, I’ll make it up to you.”

The minutes stretched into an eternity.

Then, an attendant emerged, carrying a box of ashes.

All the strength drained out of me. I collapsed to the floor, a hollowed-out wreck.

“Mom… I’m so sorry…”

“It’s done,” Evelyn said, her voice softening slightly. “The body has been cremated. Your ‘evidence’ is worthless now. Just let it go.”

Her phone buzzed, shattering the silence. Raymond’s cheerful voice echoed from the speaker.

“Evelyn! Leo wants to go to the amusement park. Where are you?”

“Okay,” she replied, her tone instantly brightening. “I’m on my way.”

She hung up and walked away without a backward glance.

I knelt on the cold floor, clutching my mother’s ashes, my body wracked with violent tremors. I had the proof, but it was too late. My mother's killer was free, defended by the daughter-in-law she had adored, and condemned by the grandson she had died to save.

A sharp, searing pain tore through my chest. Nausea rose in my throat, hot and acidic.

I doubled over, coughing up a mouthful of blood as the world went black.