Crash - Part Four

Crash – Part Four is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons or their likeness is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2015 Miranda Dawson

All Rights Reserved.

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“I can explain, I promise,” Carter pleaded as he stood just a few feet in front of me.

I glanced down at Marissa, who was sat looking relaxed on the sofa. Even to my jealous eyes, it didn’t look like there was anything going on between the two of them, and Marissa certainly didn’t look concerned about being caught in the act. That either meant she had covered her tracks well and we wouldn’t stand a chance in any lawsuit against her, or there was some other explanation to all this. I desperately wanted to believe it was the latter—both for the sake of my business and my relationship with Carter—but wanting something rarely made it so.

“Sit down, Carter,” I said, finding a source of strength inside me I hadn’t known existed.

He paused at first and didn’t move, but I stared at him until he retreated to take a seat on an armchair.
He didn’t sit next to Marissa. That has to be a good sign, right?

“John is downstairs in the lobby,” I continued. “You must have walked right past him. Whatever your supposed explanation is for all this, it is as much John’s business as it is mine, so I’m going to get him. I’ll be right back.”

I forced myself to walk slowly and deliberately to the elevator. I stepped inside and waited for the doors to close before I let the situation overcome me. My legs felt weak, like all the blood had been drained from my muscles. Even the artificial part of me felt drained and I only remained standing by leaning on the handrail. The elevator doors would open in a few seconds, and by that point I had to be composed and ready to talk to John.

This was a business issue that affected both of us. It wasn’t the time nor the place to deal with my love life. From a business perspective, nothing much had changed. We knew the investor was screwing us over and that was still the case, even with the knowledge that the investor was Carter. It was a fine distinction, but I tried to keep focused on it.

“John,” I said as I approached him. He had taken a seat on one of the sofas and was flicking through a trashy magazine to keep himself up-to-date with celebrity gossip.

“Oh, hey,” he replied, standing up and chucking the magazine back on the table. “Are you ready to… Where’s your jacket?”

“You need to come back upstairs with me.”

“Uh, okay. Why?”

I took a deep breath and blurted out the words. “Because Carter is the investor. Our investor. He’s up there now with Marissa. Come on. Apparently, they have an explanation, and I don’t know about you, but I’m dying to hear it.”

Carter at least had the decency to make some coffee while I was gone. Stimulants might not have been a good idea just then, but I picked up the cup anyway so I would have something to hold in my hands while we talked.

“Emily said that you are the investor?” John asked. Carter nodded. “And you’re Marissa? If that is your real name.”

“I am, but it’s not,” ‘Marissa’ said. “My real name’s Kerry, for what it’s worth. Kerry Woodson. I signed the investment documents with my real name so you might recognize it.”

“I have a few choice names for you, as well,” John said.

I’d never known John to be one to keep his emotions hidden—especially anger—but he was doing a decent job of that now. Did that mean he was feeling something else? Fear? Anxiety? I knew I had all those emotions going on, and they were playing havoc with my stomach.

“I’m going to save you the trouble of coming up with any more lies,” I said, my eyes fixed on Carter. “Not only do we know you are the investor, but we also know you and her,” I shoved a thumb in the direction of Kerry, “were passing our information along to PharmaTech.”

“That’s correct,” Carter said. “But—”

I held up a hand to stop him mid-sentence. “There’ll be time for your excuses later. First, I want to know how far back this goes, because there’s one thing that has me confused.”

“Just the one?” John whispered to me. Now I knew why he was so quiet—he was as confused as I was.

“You never had to have any contact with me,” I continued. “You could have invested in our company and taken the information without having a relationship with me. I never gave you any secrets about the business, and you never persuaded me to give them to Marissa. I mean Kerry. Why manipulate me romantically, too?”

I had a double motive for asking that question. I obviously wanted the answer, but it was also my way of letting John know that I hadn’t been spilling secrets during pillow talk. A million and one things must have been going through his mind, and I couldn’t blame him if he held me partly responsible. This way, I could let him know that we were both in it together and always would be.

“It wasn’t like that,” Carter said. “Not at all. When I went to that conference I knew you were going to be there, and I knew you were going to be presenting about your company. I went there to see you and find out how you had been doing since the accident.”

“And when you saw me, you thought, ‘there’s a girl I can screw over—literally?’ ”

“No,” Carter said, shaking his head. “I just went to see you. I swear.”

“It’s my fault,” Kerry said, suddenly butting into the conversation. “Carter invited me to the conference, as well. When I saw your presentation, I knew immediately that LimbAnalytics was the perfect company to invest in on behalf of PharmaTech.”

Something about Kerry’s version of events wasn’t ringing true, but I couldn’t put a finger on it. “You gave him your business card,” I said, thinking back to when I first saw Carter from the stage. He had been talking to a woman and she handed him a business card. “Why would you do that if you already knew him?” That wasn’t all that was bugging me, but maybe the answer to that question would lead me down the right path.

“That was a new one,” Kerry replied. “Carter didn’t believe I worked for PharmaTech until I showed him the card.”

She wasn’t lying. I wasn’t sure how I knew she was telling the truth, but I was confident. Strangely, when she lied, she had more conviction in her voice. Now she just sounded a little fatigued, as if being found out had taken all the fun away and she was just going through the motions.

“Why?” John asked.

“Why what?” Kerry answered.

“Why did Carter invite you to the conference? He said he was there to see Emily, and that kind of makes sense, but what about you? Why were you there?”

That was it. That was the thing that had been bugging me about Kerry’s explanation. I could understand why Carter would want to see me; he would have felt guilty about the crash and had probably spent five years in prison thinking about it. But why would he invite Kerry to see me too?

She let out a long, deep sigh. “Carter invited me because he knew I wanted to meet you, as well.”

“But why?” I said through gritted teeth.

“Because Bella is my sister.”

I stared into the overly milky coffee that Carter had made, unable to look up and meet Kerry’s gaze. “I think I’m going to need something a little stronger.”

“Me too,” John said, putting his coffee down on the table. “Where do you keep the good stuff?”

“There’s whiskey over there on the bookcase,” Carter said. “Although even that may not be strong enough for this conversation.”

“Sounds like I’ll be pouring four glasses, then,” John said.

I grabbed some glasses from the kitchen while John brought over the decanter. I didn’t consider myself an expert on whiskey, but even I could tell this was a good one just by looking at the smooth texture fill the glass. John and I took the drinks over to Kerry and Carter and sat back down. Judging by the tense look on Carter’s face, I felt like the biggest revelations were still to come.

“So, you’re the sister?” I asked. Carter had mentioned Bella’s sister a few times in passing, but John probably hadn’t heard of her. “You were the one who encouraged Carter to marry Bella?”

“Yes,” she replied. “At the time, I honestly believed that would make a difference. I was desperate. I would have done anything it took to save my sister, but I regret what I made Carter do. I shouldn’t have asked that of him.”

“Maybe I’m just being a little slow,” John said, “but let me just see if I understand this: even though you two were not the ones responsible for the accident, you both felt some guilt for how things worked out. Once Carter was released from prison, you both decided to go and see Emily to see how she was getting on?”

“That’s about the gist of it,” Carter said.

“So, where the hell does PharmaTech come in to all of this?” John asked. “And more specifically, why did you bring our company into your weird machinations?”

Kerry and Carter shared a look as if debating just how much they should say.

“I hope you’re not considering withholding anything from us right now,” I said. “You owe us both the truth after what you did to our business. And you,” I looked at Carter. “You owe me for other reasons.”

“We decided—” Carter began.

“Let me explain,” Kerry said. “It was my idea. The whole thing. I want you to know that, despite how this may look, I
hate
PharmaTech. More than you. Trust me, no one hates that company as much as I do.”

Now it was mine and John’s turn to share a confused look. “Then why did you give them our secrets? Why go work for them?”

“To take them down.” Kerry went silent as if that would be a sufficient explanation for the whole thing. When John and I simply stared back at her, she finally continued. “They killed her. PharmaTech killed my sister. Yes, she made mistakes, but they are responsible for her death.”

“This next bit may be a little awkward for you to hear,” Carter said.

He was only looking at me, not John, so I knew it must be about his relationship with Bella.

“Bella was on birth control at the time of the accident,” Kerry said. “I won’t go into all the details, but suffice it to say that she had tried a number of different pills, but they all had side effects. Finally, her doctor prescribed a new one produced by PharmaTech.”

At some point, perhaps later today, perhaps next week, the thought of Carter and Bella sleeping together would enter my mind and torture me. I knew they had, of course, but I could have done without such a direct confirmation. For now, my mind was allowing me to focus on what was really important.

“Oh, God. You’re not one of those extremist nut jobs, are you?” John asked. “You can’t hate every company that produces birth control pills?”

Kerry sighed, frustrated. “No, I’m not. It wasn’t that she was on birth control. The problem was that the pill was faulty. It messed her up pretty bad.”

Oh, God. Bella was pregnant. Carter had a child.

“Not in that way,” Carter quickly said, reading my mind.