We followed the signal west as Phoenix thinned into industrial lots, warehouses, and stretches of dark road. Police vehicles moved ahead of us without sirens. Rebecca drove because officers refused to let me follow in my own state of mind. I sat rigid in the passenger seat watching the location marker crawl across her phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca glanced down.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNear an old quarry access road.\u201d<\/p>\n
She called the officer leading the response.<\/p>\n
The marker sat still for almost two minutes.<\/p>\n
Then moved again.<\/p>\n
Slowly.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe she\u2019s walking.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOr he found the device.\u201d<\/p>\n
We both knew the second possibility.<\/p>\n
Police split at the next junction.<\/p>\n
A helicopter had been requested but was still minutes away.<\/p>\n
The desert beyond the road looked endless.<\/p>\n
Finally, flashing lights appeared ahead.<\/p>\n
A patrol unit had found the black pickup abandoned near a dirt turnout.<\/p>\n
Passenger door open.<\/p>\n
No Olivia.<\/p>\n
No Leonard.<\/p>\n
I was ordered to remain behind the cars.<\/p>\n
I ignored that until an officer physically stopped me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re searching.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe could be hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you running into darkness helps nobody.\u201d<\/p>\n
I hated him for being right.<\/p>\n
The emergency beacon was discovered twenty yards from the truck.<\/p>\n
A small plastic device lay crushed in the dirt.<\/p>\n
Leonard had found it.<\/p>\n
But not immediately.<\/p>\n
Footprints continued beyond it.<\/p>\n
Two sets.<\/p>\n
One larger.<\/p>\n
One smaller.<\/p>\n
Olivia was walking.<\/p>\n
That meant she was conscious.<\/p>\n
Search teams followed.<\/p>\n
I stood beside the pickup.<\/p>\n
Its cab smelled of sweat, dust, and stale coffee.<\/p>\n
Blood marked the passenger door.<\/p>\n
Not much.<\/p>\n
Still too much.<\/p>\n
Police found duct tape behind the seat.<\/p>\n
A handgun in the center console.<\/p>\n
Documents under the driver\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n
One carried my father\u2019s name.<\/p>\n
Another carried mine.<\/p>\n
Leonard had been traveling with evidence.<\/p>\n
Or preparing to destroy it.<\/p>\n
Rebecca looked toward the dark hills.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knew this was collapsing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does he want with Olivia?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe knows enough to connect him to Marjorie.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo he kills her?\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca did not answer.<\/p>\n
A radio crackled.<\/p>\n
Movement spotted near a maintenance structure.<\/p>\n
Officers ran.<\/p>\n
Then came a shout.<\/p>\n
Another.<\/p>\n
A gunshot.<\/p>\n
I moved before anyone could stop me.<\/p>\n
Rebecca yelled my name.<\/p>\n
I ran toward the sound.<\/p>\n
The ground was uneven, gravel sliding beneath my shoes.<\/p>\n
Lights swept across a low concrete building ahead.<\/p>\n
Police shouted commands.<\/p>\n
A man stepped into view.<\/p>\n
Leonard.<\/p>\n
He held Olivia in front of him.<\/p>\n
One arm across her chest.<\/p>\n
A gun near her ribs.<\/p>\n
I stopped.<\/p>\n
Everything inside me went silent.<\/p>\n
Olivia\u2019s face was bruised.<\/p>\n
Blood darkened one side of her hair.<\/p>\n
But her eyes were open.<\/p>\n
She saw me.<\/p>\n
Her expression changed from fear to fury.<\/p>\n
Not at Leonard.<\/p>\n
At me.<\/p>\n
Because I had come too close.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack up!\u201d an officer shouted.<\/p>\n
Leonard dragged Olivia backward.<\/p>\n
\u201cTell them to lower the guns!\u201d<\/p>\n
No one did.<\/p>\n
His voice cracked.<\/p>\n
\u201cDerek!\u201d<\/p>\n
I froze.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want her alive?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen tell them to move.\u201d<\/p>\n
The officer beside me whispered, \u201cDo not negotiate for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is because of you, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause you finally started asking questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet her go.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe should\u2019ve stayed out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Olivia said something too quietly for me to hear.<\/p>\n
Leonard jerked her harder.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did you say?\u201d<\/p>\n
She spoke louder.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re scared of Marjorie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard\u2019s face twisted.<\/p>\n
\u201cShut up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Olivia winced but continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s going to blame all of this on you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard\u2019s grip tightened.<\/p>\n
I understood what she was doing.<\/p>\n
She was provoking him.<\/p>\n
Creating separation between him and my mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cOlivia,\u201d I said carefully.<\/p>\n
Her eyes flicked toward me.<\/p>\n
I tried to tell her without words: stop.<\/p>\n
She ignored me.<\/p>\n
\u201cDerek found the records,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Leonard looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat records?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe storage unit.\u201d<\/p>\n
His expression changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou opened it?\u201d<\/p>\n
I said nothing.<\/p>\n
He swore.<\/p>\n
Olivia continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cMarjorie told police you acted alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was a lie.<\/p>\n
A brilliant one.<\/p>\n
Leonard stared at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said the forged loans were yours. The identity theft was yours. Everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
His breathing became ragged.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe wouldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Olivia laughed softly despite the gun.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou really think she\u2019s protecting you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShut up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou watched what she did to her husband.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard went still.<\/p>\n
So did I.<\/p>\n
Olivia had crossed into the question that had haunted me since the storage unit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened to my father?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
Leonard looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you kill him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
The answer came too quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid my mother?\u201d<\/p>\n
His eyes shifted.<\/p>\n
That was enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeonard.\u201d<\/p>\n
He shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe didn\u2019t mean\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
He stopped.<\/p>\n
Olivia\u2019s eyes closed for half a second.<\/p>\n
I felt the world narrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat didn\u2019t she mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard\u2019s voice dropped.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was supposed to calm down.\u201d<\/p>\n
No one moved.<\/p>\n
\u201cExplain.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was threatening everybody. Said he was going to police. Said he had copies.\u201d<\/p>\n
My mouth dried.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did she give him?\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never touched him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat isn\u2019t what I asked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officers remained frozen around us.<\/p>\n
Leonard looked at the ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe put something in the water.\u201d<\/p>\n
My knees almost failed.<\/p>\n
Olivia whispered, \u201cDerek.\u201d<\/p>\n
I barely heard her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard\u2019s face was wet with sweat.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe wanted him sleepy. Confused. Enough to stop him from leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know the dose.\u201d<\/p>\n
The words tore through me.<\/p>\n
Dose.<\/p>\n
He knew enough to know there was one.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father died.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou left.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard\u2019s jaw tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cMarjorie told me to.\u201d<\/p>\n
The desert seemed impossibly quiet.<\/p>\n
I remembered the kitchen.<\/p>\n
The glass.<\/p>\n
My father gripping the counter.<\/p>\n
My mother screaming.<\/p>\n
Leonard gone.<\/p>\n
All of it real.<\/p>\n
All of it rearranged.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe called an ambulance,\u201d Leonard said quickly. \u201cShe panicked. She didn\u2019t want him dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
The distinction meant nothing.<\/p>\n
Olivia spoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd afterward?\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard glared at her.<\/p>\n
She continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou helped her hide the records.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShut up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou helped her use Derek\u2019s identity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShut up!\u201d<\/p>\n
His attention shifted toward her face.<\/p>\n
That was the opening.<\/p>\n
Olivia drove her heel backward into his shin.<\/p>\n
Leonard stumbled.<\/p>\n
She dropped.<\/p>\n
Police fired.<\/p>\n
One shot.<\/p>\n
Leonard spun and fell.<\/p>\n
The gun hit the dirt.<\/p>\n
Officers rushed him.<\/p>\n
I ran to Olivia.<\/p>\n
She was on her knees, hands over her head.<\/p>\n
I stopped several feet away.<\/p>\n
I wanted to touch her.<\/p>\n
I did not.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you hurt?\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked at me.<\/p>\n
Blood ran from a cut near her temple.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy shoulder.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paramedics moved in.<\/p>\n
Only then did she let herself shake.<\/p>\n
I crouched nearby.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
She closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, you don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her voice broke.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not the moment for you to make me take care of your guilt.\u201d<\/p>\n
The words landed exactly where they needed to.<\/p>\n
I nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paramedics lifted her onto a stretcher.<\/p>\n
Leonard was alive.<\/p>\n
Shot through the upper arm.<\/p>\n
Police cuffed him while medics treated the wound.<\/p>\n
As they carried him past, he turned toward me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour mother started it before your dad found out.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n
He grimaced.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was already using your name.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
He shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. You don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
An officer tried to move him.<\/p>\n
Leonard forced out one more sentence.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsk whose name she used first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then he was gone.<\/p>\n
At the hospital, Olivia refused to let me into the examination room.<\/p>\n
I respected it.<\/p>\n
For once.<\/p>\n
Rebecca stayed with her.<\/p>\n
I sat alone beneath fluorescent lights.<\/p>\n
My father dead.<\/p>\n
My wife injured.<\/p>\n
My mother linked to both.<\/p>\n
And Leonard\u2019s final words circling my mind.<\/p>\n
Whose name she used first.<\/p>\n
Two hours later, Rebecca stepped into the waiting room.<\/p>\n
\u201cOlivia has a concussion and a separated shoulder. She\u2019ll recover.\u201d<\/p>\n
Relief nearly folded me in half.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan I see her?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
I nodded.<\/p>\n
Rebecca sat across from me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s something else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course there was.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeonard started talking to police.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked up.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wants a deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor telling them everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout my father?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat too.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat else?\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cDerek, Marjorie did not begin with your identity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen whose?\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cOlivia\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n
I frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat makes no sense. Olivia didn\u2019t know her until we got together.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen how?\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca slid a photocopy across the table.<\/p>\n
It was an application dated six months before Olivia and I met.<\/p>\n
Applicant: Olivia Bennett.<\/p>\n
My wife\u2019s maiden name.<\/p>\n
Marjorie had been using Olivia\u2019s identity before Olivia ever entered my life.<\/p>\n
We followed the signal west as Phoenix thinned into industrial lots, warehouses, and stretches of dark road. Police vehicles moved ahead of us without sirens. Rebecca drove because officers refused … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feel-one-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15788"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15835,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15788\/revisions\/15835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}