The Bride Wore Blood At The Finish Line Chapter 07
The hospital hallway had that familiar bleach smell.
Twice in twenty-four hours. That’s how many times I’d walked this hallway.
Last time, I was on the operating table. Staring up into a surgical lamp at my own bone-white face while they emptied a seven-week-old baby out of my body.
This time I was here to see Grandma Ellie.
I pushed open the door to the VIP suite. Oxygen tube looped behind her ears. Face gray as concrete.
Mr. Brooks was standing beside her bed. He saw me come in and quietly stepped out.
“Nora.”
Her first reaction wasn’t to ask me why I’d blown up the wedding.
She reached for me. Thin, papery fingers trembling.
“Come here. Let me look at you.”
I walked over. Sat down beside her.
She took my hand. Turned it over. Looked at the fresh crescents in my palm.
Fingernail cuts. Already scabbed.
Then her eyes drifted to my wrist. The bruises Hunter left. Five clear fingerprints.
Tears rolled down her face. No sound.
“I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” she said. “This is my fault. I raised that monster.”
“Grandma—”
“Don’t call me that.”
Her grip tightened. “I don’t deserve to be your grandmother.”
“Ethan. I watched that boy grow up. He was such a good kid. Started go-karting when he was six. Every time he won, he’d come running to show me his medal. I told him he’d be a champion one day. And he’d smile so big…”
Her voice cracked.
“He called me Grams. Wrote me a card every single birthday. And now he’s gone. And that helmet is…”
She squeezed her eyes shut. Tears slid down through the wrinkles.
I couldn’t say a word.
The room stayed quiet for a long time.
Then she opened her eyes. Wiped her face. Her voice suddenly went calm.
Too calm.
Something in my chest tightened.
“Nora. The proxy document. Don’t worry about it.”
She reached under her pillow and pulled out a folder. Handed it to me.
I opened it.
An emergency amendment to the Vance Family Trust. A full vote of no confidence.
The bottom right corner wasn’t just her signature.
It was signed by every single member of the Vance family board.
“I signed this on the flight home.”
She looked at me steadily.
“Just an insurance policy. In case Hunter turned out to be a disappointment.”
Her eyes were quiet.
“Turns out he isn’t a disappointment. He doesn’t have a soul.”
My fingers went white around the folder.
Hunter’s inheritance was frozen. Right now. This second.
Every year he’d spent playing the humble grandson. Every string he’d pulled. Every time he’d used me. Used my brother.
Used anyone he could get his hands on. The whole web he’d been spinning to reach the top of Vance Group…
Gone.
“There’s one more thing.”
Her voice dropped.
She pressed the call button on the bed rail.
The door opened.
Not a nurse.
Two people in uniform walked in.
I recognized the badges on their chests. Racing safety investigators. Federal level.
“Mrs. Vance. We received the formal complaint you submitted.”
The lead one spoke.
“Regarding the modified cooling system in Ethan Sinclair’s vehicle at round eight of the Sovereign Cup, our office has agreed to open an independent investigation.”
He paused. Glanced at me.
“If we find evidence of deliberate tampering resulting in a fatality, the case will be handed to the FBI and the District Attorney’s office.”
The blood shot to my head. Then drained straight back out.
My brother’s death wasn’t a racing accident anymore.
From this second on, it was a homicide.
“Grandma—” I turned to her.
She patted my hand. Her fingers were thin. But the grip was iron.
“Nora. Your brother didn’t die for nothing.”
Her eyes drifted past me. Out the window.
Headlights moved through the dark below.
“As for Hunter…”
She didn’t finish.
Because the door slammed open behind me.
Hunter stood in the doorway.
His shirt was crumpled. Collar wide open. Hair a mess.
He was holding a piece of paper. Wrinkled. Balled up and flattened again. Like he’d pulled it out of something wet.
The edges were dark red. Dried blood.
The ultrasound report. The one he’d crushed and thrown into the blood at my feet.
He’d finally looked at it.
“Nora.”
His voice was shaking.
And his eyes.
His eyes were red.