Chapter 3 - Accidents Need PrivacyEthan’s hand struck the release.
Ava’s seat belt snapped free.
The loose strap whipped through the cabin, slapping against the open door before twisting into the rotor wash.
Ava grabbed the belt with one hand and the rail with the other.
Ethan seized her upper arm.
His fingers dug into the cream fabric of her blazer.
The cruelty in his face was no longer hidden.
It was almost joyful.
Ava stared at him.
“What are you doing?”
Ethan pulled her toward the open doorway.
The polished husband disappeared completely.
In his place stood a man whose greed had finally become stronger than his need to appear civilized.
“Because accidents need privacy,” he snarled.
Ava drove her low heel against the cabin floor.
Her body twisted, but she refused to release the rail.
Ethan pulled harder.
Wind roared between them.
The ocean spun beyond the door, impossibly far below.
Ava’s heart hammered so violently that the wrist device beneath her cuff registered the sudden increase.
Another vibration answered.
A second stage had activated.
Ethan mistook her fear for helplessness.
“You should have signed the transfer papers,” he shouted.
The words nearly vanished beneath the rotor noise.
Ava heard them anyway.
The family trust.
The voting shares.
The technology patents.
Everything Ethan believed would become his if Ava and the baby died together.
He had not brought her into the sky because he hated her.
He had brought her because her survival stood between him and ownership.
Ava looked toward the cockpit.
The pilot still seemed unaware of the struggle behind him.
Ethan positioned his body between Ava and the front seats.
“You won’t get away with this,” she said.
Ethan laughed.
“There will be nothing to investigate.”
Ava’s fear sharpened.
Not into panic.
Into certainty.
He had planned the route.
The open door.
The isolated cliffs.
Perhaps even the story he would tell afterward.
But he had not planned for the device against her wrist.
May you like
And he had not noticed the blinking light beside his seat.
👉 Ethan believed the ocean would erase every question, but Ava had already begun creating answers.
