Their Four-Person Test, My Unopened Parachute Chapter 05

The sheet came off. What lay on the stretcher wasn’t even a body anymore.

A free fall from twenty-five hundred meters with nothing to break it – every bone in her body had been

crushed.

Her face was unrecognizable. Flesh and blood and gravel fused together.

Damian’s hand froze midair.

“This isn’t her!”

He stumbled back two steps, knocking over the medical cart behind him. Trays clattered to the floor

“You’ve got the wrong person. The wrong person, definitely.”

“Avery was wearing a white tracksuit – not this pile of pulp!”

The medical examiner didn’t argue. He just took another clear sealed bag from the evidence box.

Inside was a misshapen silver bracelet.

It was soaked in blood, and on the inside were two crooked letters: A+D.

He’d bought it for me at a flea market in Brooklyn for ten dollars, back in college, right after his first failed attempt to break away from the Moretti family.

Later, he took over the family business and became worth hundreds of millions. Every piece of jewelry he gave Celeste was a top-tier treasure bought at Christie’s.

He’d lost count of how many times he called me petty and cheap, said wearing that kind of trash made him

look bad.

But I wore it for five whole years – never took it off, not to shower, not to sleep.

“There’s this too.”

The examiner brought out another evidence bag.

Inside was a clinic checkup report, dated three days ago.

“We found it in the victim’s inner pocket.”

“The victim was eight weeks pregnant.”

Damian looked like he’d been struck by lightning.

“What?”

“Pregnant?”

“What do you mean, pregnant?!”

He lunged forward like a madman, grabbed the examiner by the collar, and screamed hoarsely, “How could

she be pregnant?!”

“She never told me! You’re all in on this, lying to me – aren’t you?!”

The officers rushed over and pulled him off.

“Mr. Moretti, please calm down!”

“Oh, right there’s also a note in the victim’s pocket. Take a look.”

The detective held the clear bag up in front of him.

A corner of the paper was stained with blood, but the handwriting was still clear.

I’d written it before I boarded the helicopter.

[Damian, there’s a baby growing inside me. Our baby.]

[You said if I jumped, you’d propose. So I’ll jump for you.]

[If it makes you happy, I’ll try anything.]

[Will I finally get to wear the ring you give me?]

Damian stared at those lines, his lips trembling.

The next second, his legs gave out and he crashed to his knees on the cold concrete.

He’d thought this was just a punishment – a game to teach Avery obedience.

He’d mocked her at the cabin door, called her spoiled, said she embarrassed him.

He’d pushed her off with his own hands, ten thousand meters up.

And shoved their unborn child into the abyss along with her.