He Chose Her, So I Faked My Death novel · Chapter 26 of 32

Chapter 26: The Cliff Road

Preston opened the passenger door and pulled Lydia out by the arm.

Her hair was wild, and her wrists were tied with the belt from her own coat.

He held his phone up in his other hand with the camera pointed at her face.

"Say it," he said. "From the top."

"Preston, please."

"Say that you signed the Halcyon papers, and that Imogen never touched them."

"I can't."

"Then you can tell it to the water."

He dragged her toward the guardrail.

Below it the ocean threw itself against the rocks.

Jasper was out of the truck before I could speak.

"Stay behind me," he said.

"No."

"Imogen."

"He wants his wife," I said. "Let him have her."

I walked out of the trees onto the road in the last of the light.

My shoes crunched on the gravel.

Preston heard it and turned his head.

For a moment he did not move at all.

The phone slid in his hand, and the screen caught the sky.

"Imogen," he said.

It was the first time he had ever said my name as if it cost him something.

"Let her go," I said.

"You're dead."

"I was declared dead by a judge you paid. I'm not."

Lydia screamed my name.

Preston yanked her back against his chest.

"Don't come closer," he said. "I'll do it. I swear to God I'll do it."

"Do what? Throw her off a cliff on camera?"

"She's the signer."

"She's a liar, and a bad one." I took another step. "But she didn't sign. You did. Four sheets in your own handwriting, and eleven recordings of you saying it."

"Those can be faked."

"Then why are you shaking?"

He was.

His whole arm was.

Behind me, far off, I heard the beat of rotor blades, and it grew.

A helicopter swung over the ridge with a camera pod on its nose.

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