Chapter 3

The precinct was quiet, late evening. I' d come to bring Sarah dinner, a small attempt at normalcy.

Her office door was slightly ajar. I heard voices.

Sarah, and her partner, Kevin Rodriguez.

"Sarah, you can't keep stonewalling on the Miller case," Kevin said, his voice low, frustrated.

"It's not stonewalling, Kev. There's just no new evidence." Sarah's tone was clipped, defensive.

"No new evidence? Or no evidence you want to see? That security footage from the gas station down the street from the Millers' place, the one showing Michael Vance's car there half an hour before the estimated time of death? You dismissed it as circumstantial."

My breath hitched. Michael?

"It was circumstantial, Kevin. He said he was visiting a friend in the area."

"A friend he couldn't name? And the financials we pulled on Vance Sr.? Ruined by Miller Tech, wasn't he? Motive, Sarah. Clear as day."

"My father-in-law's company was one of many his father competed with," Sarah snapped. "It doesn't make Michael a killer. He's my brother-in-law. He's grieving too, in his own way. He loved Jessica' s parents."

"He married Jessica right after her sister' s ex-fiancé' s parents were murdered, Sarah. And you married Ethan. It's... messy."

Then Sarah' s voice dropped, softer, laced with something I couldn' t identify.

"Michael is a good man, Kevin. He's been through a lot. I know him. He wouldn't do something like this. I believe in his innocence."

A beat of silence.

"You believe, or you want to believe?" Kevin pressed. "Sarah, if this ever comes out, that you buried viable leads on your own husband's parents' murder case, possibly to protect your sister's husband..."

"I know what I'm doing," Sarah cut in, her voice hard again. "And I'd do anything to protect Michael. Anything. He deserves happiness, after everything."

My stomach turned to ice.

Protect Michael? Her brother-in-law? The man who married my ex?

The dinner bag slipped from my numb fingers, hitting the linoleum floor with a soft thud.