Chapter Four: The Impact Mark

Four years earlier, Mia had struck a boy on a country road after drinking. By the time Luca arrived, she had dragged the body into a ditch. She told him she had been in the passenger seat. Luca filed a false report for her and eventually began to remember himself behind the wheel. Before their wedding, an anonymous note had asked: How long will you remember it for her? “I hid the key under a lifeboat on the Eurydice,” Luca whispered. “I thought it belonged to the car.” “A storage locker,” Mia said. “My coat from that night is inside.” A white-gloved hand extended through the door. A voice as gentle as an insurance adjuster's said, “Surrender the first lie. Key returned. Liability corrected.”