Chapter 7 - The Journey Through the Fog
By midnight, Martha’s sedan had been exchanged for Detective Ward’s unmarked, dust-coated SUV. Leo was curled up in the back seat under a woolen blanket, sound asleep with his mother’s photograph tucked safely under his pillow.
Elena sat in the passenger seat, watching the misty pine trees whip past along the coastal highway. Rain had begun to fall, a steady drumming on the windshield that mirrored the frantic beating of her heart.
"Why are you doing this, Mr. Ward?" Elena asked, breaking the long silence. "Julian could ruin your agency. He could ruin you."
Ward kept his eyes glued to the slick asphalt. "Ten years ago, Clara came to my office with bruises on her arm. Julian had thrown a glass across the room. She was terrified, but she believed she could change him, that a child would soften his edges. I told her to go home and try counseling. I gave her the safe, standard, cowardly advice of a man who didn't want to get involved with high-society monsters."
He gripped the steering wheel tighter. "Two weeks after Leo was born, Clara was buried. I swore on her grave that if the truth ever found daylight again, I wouldn't tell her surrogate to go home and play nice."
Elena looked down at her swollen stomach. She felt the rhythmic kicks of her unborn daughter. "I used to think that endurance was strength," Elena whispered. "I thought taking his insults, absorbing his temper, and making excuses for him was protecting Leo. But love doesn't look like survival. Love should look like peace."
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"You learn fast," Ward said quietly.
Suddenly, two pairs of high-beam headlights flared in the rearview mirror, piercing through the dense coastal fog at breakneck speed.
