Chapter 5 - The Secret Unravels
Erica frowned, looking at her husband’s terrified face. “Jason? What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Jason couldn't speak. He was hyperventilating, his eyes darting back to the screen. The news broadcast was zooming in on the survivors of the overturned charter bus, showing the medics wrapping them in thermal blankets.
Among the survivors, clearly visible on the high-definition screen, was a woman with dark hair holding a little boy.
It was the same little boy I had pulled from the bus.
Erica followed Jason’s gaze to the screen. She squinted. Then, she gasped, a sharp, ragged sound that cut through the silent dining room.
“Is that… is that my sister?” Erica cried out, leaping from her chair. “That’s Sarah! And little Leo! They were on that bus!”
Erica’s parents jumped up, panic erupting around the table. “Sarah? What do you mean she was on that bus? She was supposed to fly in from Chicago tonight!” her mother screamed.
“She did fly in!” Erica said frantically, pulling out her phone. “Her flight landed at Denver International three hours ago! But… she said she didn't have money for a rental car because of the holiday surge pricing, so she was going to take the cheap commuter bus…”
Erica stopped. She slowly turned to look at Jason.
Jason was shrinking into his expensive tailored suit, sweating profusely.
“Jason,” Erica said, her voice dropping to a dangerously low, shaking whisper. “I told you to wire Sarah the money for a private car service yesterday. Did you do it?”
The entire dinner party stared at Jason.
“I… I meant to,” Jason stammered, holding up his hands defensively. “But the firm’s accounts were frozen for the holiday audit, and I didn't want to pull from our personal savings. It was just a bus, Erica! I thought she’d be fine!”
“You lied to me!” Erica shrieked, tears springing to her eyes. “You told me you took care of it! You told me she was in a safe SUV! My sister and my six-year-old nephew were on a freezing bus that almost got crushed by a tanker because you were too cheap to spend two hundred dollars of your precious promotion bonus?!”
My father stood up, his face pale with shock. “Jason… is this true?”
“It was just a misunderstanding!” Jason yelled, panicking. “They’re alive, aren’t they? Thomas saved them!”
The absolute audacity of the statement hung in the air like a foul stench.
Erica’s father, a formidable man who had helped finance Jason’s rise at the firm, stepped forward, his face purple with rage.
“You left my daughter and grandson on a cheap bus in a blizzard to save a few bucks,” her father growled. “And your stepbrother—the man you barred from this house tonight because you were jealous of him—is the only reason they aren’t sitting in a morgue right now.”
Jason tried to speak, but Erica cut him off, throwing her linen napkin directly at his chest.
“Don't you ever speak to me again,” she sobbed. “I am going to the hospital to find my sister.”
As Erica and her parents stormed out of the house, leaving the front door wide open to the freezing wind, Jason stood alone in the dining room.
My father stood beside the shattered wineglass, looking at the television. The broadcast was replaying the footage of me diving out of the crushing truck.
For the first time in his life, my father saw clearly exactly who his sons were. One was a hero who put his life on the line for strangers. The other was a selfish coward who nearly got his own family killed over pride.
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My father pulled out his phone, his hands shaking, and dialed my number.
It went straight to voicemail.
