Elijah's POV
The photograph in Sarah's hand made my knees buckle.
It was me. Sixteen years old. Drunk. Behind the wheel of my car on the night my parents died.
"Where did you get that?" I whispered.
"I took it," Sarah said with a cold smile. "Right after I pulled you from the wreckage."
My gun was shaking in my hands. Everyone was staring at me like I was a monster.
"You were there?" I asked.
"I was following your parents that night," Sarah said. "They were driving to meet someone important. Someone who had information about James's business problems."
"What information?" Dad asked.
"Information about me," Sarah said, never taking her eyes off me. "Your parents found out I was planning to destroy you. They were coming to warn you."
The world started spinning around me.
"That's impossible," I said.
"Is it?" Sarah asked. "Think, Elijah. Why do you think your parents were driving on that back road? Why do you think they were out so late?"
My head was pounding. I tried to remember that night, but it was all fuzzy. I had been drinking at a party. I had taken my car even though I was drunk. I had crashed into another car.
Two people had died in that other car.
My parents.
"You killed them," Sarah said. "Your own mother and father died because you were too drunk to drive straight."
"No," I whispered. "No, that's not what happened."
"Yes, it is," Sarah said. "And I have the photos to prove it."
She pulled out more pictures: me stumbling out of my car, me crying over my parents' bodies, me trying to call for help.
"I saved you that night," Sarah said. "I called the ambulance. I made sure the police thought it was just an accident. I protected you."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because I needed you alive," Sarah said. "I needed you to grow up. I needed you to become successful. I needed you to be useful to me."
Agent Thompson stepped forward. "What are you talking about?" he asked.
"For fifteen years," Sarah said, "I've been controlling Elijah Russell. Every business deal he made. Every company he bought. Every decision he thought was his own."
She looked at me with cruel eyes. "Including buying the Kingston company," she said. "That wasn't your idea, Elijah. That was mine."
I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach.
"You made me buy Amara's company?" I asked.
"I made you do everything," Sarah said. "Every time you tried to make a choice I didn't like, I reminded you of what would happen if people found out the truth about your parents' death."
"What truth?" Amara asked, tears running down her face.
Sarah smiled at her daughter. "The truth that your precious Elijah is a murderer," she said. "The truth that he killed his own parents and let everyone think it was an accident."
"But why?" I asked. "Why control me for so long?"
"Because I needed someone with power and money to help me destroy James," Sarah said. "And you were perfect. Rich, guilty, and easy to manipulate."
My mind was racing. Every deal I had made. Every company I had bought. Every choice I thought I had made freely.
It had all been Sarah's plan.
"The night you met Amara at that business party three years ago," Sarah said, "do you think that was an accident?"
I remembered that night. I had been drawn to Amara immediately. Something about her had made me want to protect her.
"You arranged that?" I asked.
"I arranged everything," Sarah said. "I wanted you to fall for her. I wanted you to care about her. Because I knew that when the time came to destroy her, it would hurt you too."
"You're sick," Agent Thompson said.
"I'm thorough," Sarah corrected. "Fifteen years of planning doesn't happen by accident."
She looked at me with satisfaction. "Tell them, Elijah," she said. "Tell them how many times I've saved you from going to prison. Tell them how grateful you should be."
"I won't do this anymore," I said, raising my gun higher. "I won't let you hurt Amara."
"Yes, you will," Sarah said. "Because if you don't, I'll release these photos to every news station in the country. I'll make sure everyone knows that Elijah Russell is a drunk driver who killed his own parents."
"I don't care," I said, but my voice was shaking.
"Yes, you do," Sarah said. "Because it won't just destroy you. It will destroy your company. Your employees. Everyone who depends on you."
She was right. If the truth came out, thousands of people would lose their jobs. My whole company would collapse.
"And there's something else," Sarah said with a terrible smile. "Something I haven't told you yet."
"What?" I asked, dreading the answer.
"Your parents weren't just coming to warn James that night," Sarah said. "They were coming to warn him about you."
"About me?"
"They found out you were working with Chairman Crain," Sarah said. "They thought you were helping him destroy the Kingston family."
My heart stopped.
"That's not true," I said. "I never worked with Crain."
"Didn't you?" Sarah asked. "Who do you think gave Crain the information he needed to steal the Kingston company? Who do you think told him exactly when to make his move?"
"I never talked to Crain," I said desperately.
"No," Sarah agreed. "You talked to me. And I talked to Crain. You've been helping to destroy the Kingston family for three years, and you never even knew it."
I looked at Amara, who was staring at me with horror in her eyes.
"Every business secret I told you," I whispered. "Every piece of information about other companies—"
"I passed it all along to Crain," Sarah confirmed. "You've been my spy this whole time."
"Elijah," Amara said, her voice breaking. "Is this true?"
I wanted to lie. I wanted to tell her it was all Sarah's fault. But the truth was, I had been careless. I had shared information without thinking about who might use it.
"I didn't know," I said. "I swear I didn't know."
"But you did it," Amara said. "You helped them steal my parents' company."
"Yes," I whispered. "I did."
Amara stepped away from me like I was poisonous.
"So my parents died trying to save my family from you," she said. "And you killed them before they could warn anyone."
"It was an accident," I said desperately. "I was just a kid. I was drunk and stupid, but I never meant—"
"You meant to drive drunk," Amara said. "You meant to get in that car."
She was right. I had made the choice to drink. I had made the choice to drive. Everything that happened after was my fault.
"Amara, please," I begged. "I know I can't change what happened, but—"
"But nothing," she said. "You killed your own parents. You helped destroy my family. You've been lying to me since the day we met."
"I love you," I said.
"You don't even know what love is," she said.
Sarah was watching our conversation with pleasure. "Isn't this wonderful?" she said. "Watching you lose the one person you actually cared about?"
"Shut up," I said, turning my gun back toward her.
"Oh, Elijah," Sarah said. "You still don't understand, do you?"
"Understand what?"
Sarah pulled out one more photograph.
This one showed two cars crashed on a dark road. But there was something wrong with the picture—something that made my blood run cold. In the photo, my parents' car wasn't damaged on the right side where I had hit it. It was damaged on the left side.
"What is this?" I asked.
"This is what really happened that night," Sarah said. "You did crash into your parents' car. But they were already dead when you hit them."
"What are you talking about?"
"I killed your parents before you ever got there," Sarah said with a smile that chilled my soul. "I ran them off the road first. Then I waited for you to show up drunk and crash into them."
"Why?" I whispered.
"Because I needed you to think you were a murderer," Sarah said. "I needed you to be so consumed with guilt that you would do anything I asked."
"So I didn't kill them?" I asked.
"No," Sarah said. "But you've spent fifteen years believing you did. And that guilt has made you the perfect puppet."
I felt like I was going to throw up. Fifteen years of guilt. Fifteen years of thinking I was a murderer. Fifteen years of letting Sarah control my life.
All based on a lie.
"You destroyed my entire life," I said.
"Just like James destroyed mine," Sarah said. "Now we're even."
"No," I said, my anger finally overcoming my fear. "Now you're done."
I pointed my gun directly at Sarah's heart.
But before I could pull the trigger, she said something that froze my blood.
"If you kill me, you'll never find out where I buried your real parents' bodies."