I stopped to help a woman who was dy//ing on the side of the road and lost my job because I arrived late, but when I returned to collect my things from my desk, my entire life was about to change.

At 7:35, she’d driven toward her office.

She’d become dizzy and pulled onto Route 18 at 7:51.

She collapsed beside her car at approximately 7:53.

I stopped at 7:54.

But emergency records showed that an anonymous caller had contacted dispatch at 7:51.

The caller reported:

“There’s an elderly woman in distress near mile marker twenty-two.”

Then the connection ended.

The disturbing detail was that Eleanor hadn’t collapsed until almost two minutes afterward.

“How could anyone know?” I asked.

Daniel looked toward her.

“Unless they were following you.”

Eleanor tightened her grip on her coffee cup.

One of the attorneys clarified the medical findings.

“Doctors found nothing suggesting deliberate p/o/isoning or any obvious external cause. Her episode was consistent with an underlying cardiac condition.”

“So maybe it was coincidence,” I said.

Daniel shook his head.

“Coincidences don’t usually know mile markers.”

Then Eleanor remembered something.

“My granddaughter knew my route.”