Two weeks after the crash, Patricia was arrested.
She was charged with attempted first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation of murder.
Because Daniel Ross died during the conspiracy, the district attorney also pursued a charge of felony murder. Patricia’s defense attorney fought that one hard.
The whole legal process took more than a year.
During that year, my marriage fell apart.
Ethan moved out the week after the crash. He got an apartment across town.
Claire disappeared from both our lives. She quit her job and stopped answering anyone’s calls.
For months, Ethan sent me text messages. Late at night, mostly.
I know I betrayed you.
I know you were angry.
But Rachel, you watched me drive away.
I never argued with him about that.
He was right.
He’d betrayed our marriage for six months. And I’d let my rage override every instinct I had, for ten minutes, on the worst night of my life.
Both of those things were true at the same time.
Our divorce was final the following spring. We didn’t fight over anything. We split everything down the middle and signed the papers in a lawyer’s office in about twenty minutes.
On the way out, in the parking lot, Ethan stopped me.
“Would you have stopped me?” he asked. “If it had been Claire driving instead? Alone?”
I thought about it for a long time.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ve asked myself that every single day. And I don’t know.”
He nodded.
“Me either,” he said. “About a lot of things.”
It was the most honest conversation we’d had in a year.
Sophia Rivers is an experienced News Content Editor with a sharp eye for detail and a passion for delivering accurate and engaging news stories. At TheArchivists, she specializes in curating, editing, and presenting news content that informs and resonates with a global audience.
Sophia holds a degree in Journalism from the University of Toronto, where she developed her skills in news reporting, media ethics, and digital journalism. Her expertise lies in identifying key stories, crafting compelling narratives, and ensuring journalistic integrity in every piece she edits.
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