Chapter 4 - THE VIDEO THEY NEVER WANTED ME TO SEE
I watched my brother-in-law enter the training facility eight years before he'd poured beer over my head.
My stomach twisted.
At that time, Ryan and I hadn't even met.
Derek had known about my past long before I entered his family.
And he'd spent three years pretending I was nothing more than a quiet, helpless woman.
“Why was he there?” I whispered.
Detective Mitchell leaned forward.
“That's what we're trying to determine.”
On the screen, Derek exchanged a small envelope with Marcus Vale.
Then Marcus opened Samantha's locker again.
The footage was grainy.
But the interaction was unmistakable.
I looked toward Ryan.
He appeared devastated.
“My brother was involved?”
“We don't know exactly what his role was,” Mitchell replied. “But we have evidence he was present during events relevant to the investigation.”
I pressed a hand against my mouth.
Samantha's final day flashed through my memory.
She'd complained of dizziness that morning.
Her hands had trembled before training.
I'd begged her to rest.
Marcus insisted she was fine.
Then came the sparring session.
Samantha collapsed.
The ambulance.
The screaming.
And the accusation that I'd struck her illegally.
I'd spent eight years wondering whether I could have saved her.
Now I was looking at footage suggesting something far more sinister.
Mitchell opened another document.
“Medical experts have reviewed Samantha's original toxicology reports.”
I looked up.
“What did they find?”
“Evidence of a substance that shouldn't have been present in her system.”
My heart stopped.
“Was she poisoned?”
“We can't establish intent yet. But the findings are inconsistent with the version of events presented at the original hearing.”
I began crying.
For years, people had called me dangerous.
A killer.
A disgrace to the sport.
Sponsors abandoned me.
My gym closed.
My name became something I was ashamed to hear.
And all that time, someone had been hiding evidence.
Ryan wrapped an arm around me.
“Claire, we're going to get through this.”
I leaned against him.
Then Detective Mitchell turned another page.
“There is one more thing you should see.”
He showed us a bank transfer.
A payment made two days after Samantha's death.
Amount: $750,000.
Recipient: Derek Walsh.
Sender: Vale Performance Holdings.
Ryan stared.
“My brother received three-quarters of a million dollars?”
Mitchell nodded.
“We're investigating the reason.”
Then he placed a second document on the table.
It was a signed confidentiality agreement.
At the bottom was Derek's signature.
May you like
And beneath it was a handwritten note.
“Evelyn Carter must never discover what happened in Room 17.”
