Chapter 5 - Four Years Earlier
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Detective Mason opened the folder and laid three photographs side-by-side across my white hospital blanket.
The first picture showed a beautiful, smiling young woman with dark curls, wearing an intricate lace wedding gown, standing beside a younger, beaming Ethan Morgan.
The second photo showed the same woman sitting beside Ethan at a formal black-tie charity gala, her laughter frozen in time.
The third photograph made my stomach plunge into a void.
It was a crime scene photo. The same woman lay crumpled on a damp cobblestone patio, her body twisted at an impossible angle beneath a high wrought-iron railing.
My eyes darted to the background of the third photo. I recognized the stone pillars. I recognized the ivy climbing up the brickwork.
It was the exact same second-floor balcony at the Morgan estate.
"Her name was Emily," Mason said quietly. "Ethan's first wife. Four years ago, she fell from the exact same balcony you went over three days ago."
A wave of cold nausea washed over me. "The... the report... what did it say?"
"Official ruling was an accidental death," Mason revealed, tapping the yellowed police report. "Ethan told the responding officers she had been drinking heavily after an argument. There were no eye witnesses, no security footage. The case was closed in forty-eight hours."
"Was Margaret there?" I asked, my voice trembling violently.
"Margaret called 911," Mason said grimly. "She claimed she arrived at the house twenty minutes after the fall. Ethan claimed he was upstairs in the master bedroom, fast asleep, and only woke up when he heard his mother screaming from the patio."
I stared at the photograph of Emily's lifeless body, my mind racing through the horrific parallels. Two wives. Two falls from the exact same balcony.
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"It wasn't an accident," I whispered, tears spilling over my lashes. "Neither of us slipped."
"No," Mason agreed, his jaw setting tight. "They got away with it four years ago. But they made a mistake this time."
