Page 27 of Second Chances

“Of course. I’ll come back and check on Elena after.” Sonia raises an eyebrow at me.

“I wouldn’t expect anything less from you,” I assure her.

I click the button to secure my car and leave the girls to go home. Climbing the two flights of stairs to Elena’s apartment, I can feel my chest tightening and my palms sweating. She’s standing at the door, waiting for me. The tears stream down her cheeks and increase my anxiety at the situation.

“Come in.” She holds the door open for me to enter.

“Would you prefer to talk in a coffee shop, or out in the open?” I give her the opportunity to have an escape route should she need it.

“No. Here’s fine.”

Once we’re inside the apartment, Elena takes a seat on a chair with her legs tucked under her body. She’s dressed in a t-shirt and leggings. Her hair has been brushed through, but she has no make-up on. I settle into a chair opposite her.

“Where do you want me to start?” I finally break the silence between us.

“How did you kill Sally Bridgewater?”

Straight in there. No messing around.

“I suffocated her.”

“Did she struggle?”

“No, she was unconscious. She was half dead already.”

“But she wouldn’t have died if you hadn’t murdered her.”

“No, James and Matthew would have found her and gotten her medical attention. I don’t know if she would have been the same afterward. There probably was a high chance of brain injury.”

Elena fiddles with her nails.

“I’m glad you killed her. She abandoned Ash, and he’s a good kid. No mother deserves to live after that.”

“It wasn’t my decision to make.”

“Do you make decisions like that in your work?” Elena looks up from her nails and directly at me. “Do you?”

“For the sake of national security, yes, I do.”

“You’ve killed in the line of your work?”

I nod.

“It’s no different.”

“Elena,” I interrupt, leaning forward on my chair. “It’s completely different.”

“No, it’s not. Sally Bridgewater was a threat to national security with her lies and power hungry drive. It was only a matter of time before she gave information to the wrong people and caused more trouble than perhaps even she could have expected.”

“That’s a bit extreme.”

“It’s the truth. By all accounts, the woman was a scourge to society.”

“It still doesn’t alter the fact I tried to kill and destroy my family.”

She shakes her head this time.

“You were lied to all your life, Ryan. It’s not surprising. I think I would’ve done the same in a similar situation.”

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