Chapter 11 - Ethan’s First LieMark forced the helicopter into a wide circle above the coastline.
“Sit down!” he shouted.
Ethan ignored him.
He grabbed the cockpit headset and tore it from its hook.
“If you report this, you’ll lose your license.”
Mark stared at him.
“You threw your pregnant wife out of my aircraft.”
“She jumped.”
“I saw the belt.”
“You saw nothing.”
Mark reached for the emergency frequency.
Ethan struck his arm.
The helicopter lurched.
A warning light flashed across the panel.
Mark pushed Ethan against the cabin wall.
“Touch me again and we all die.”
Ethan looked through the open side door.
Far below, a pale wing moved toward the cliffs.
Ava was still alive.
The sight destroyed something inside him.
He had planned every visible part of her death.
The deviation from the tourist route.
The isolated location.
The open door.
The emotional instability story.
The inheritance documents waiting at home.
A surviving Ava turned all of it into evidence.
“She has a device,” Ethan said.
Mark followed his gaze.
“What device?”
“I don’t know.”
The watch screamed again from the cabin floor.
Ethan kicked it beneath a seat.
The alarm continued.
Mark heard a radio burst through his headset.
The signal was broken, but one phrase came through clearly.
“Automated distress beacon…”
Mark turned toward Ethan.
“You said she jumped.”
“She did.”
“Then why did an emergency system activate before she left the aircraft?”
Ethan’s mouth opened.
No answer came.
Mark pressed the transmit button.
“This is November Seven-Four-Tango. Passenger overboard near Big Sur. Possible assault. One pregnant female descending under emergency canopy.”
Ethan lunged for the radio.
Mark blocked him.
The transmission had already left.
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Somewhere beyond the cliffs, someone had heard the first version of the truth.
👉 Ethan’s lie lasted less than a minute—yet he still believed killing the transmission could save him.
