She Called Him Mad Until the Dead Proved Him Right

When Renata, the matriarch of our Family, learned that her husband, the old Don, had been broken in the crash they staged to look like an accident, her heart gave out. The only pair of hands that could pull her back from the dark belonged to my wife, the Family's back-room surgeon.

I called her, again and again, until the line finally opened. It was not her voice that answered. It was his.

"Adriana's tied up right now. What's the urgency?"

The taste of copper filled my mouth. "Put Adriana on the line. It's a matter of life and death."