Chapter 10 - The Tape Emily Left Behind
Sarah opened the leather journal, revealing Emily's unmistakable, delicate handwriting covering dozens of pages. Tucked inside the back cover was an encrypted flash drive.
"Emily suspected you were siphoning household funds three years ago, Helen," Sarah said, stepping forward. "When she confronted you, you started slipping small doses of arsenic into her herbal tea. She thought she was suffering from an autoimmune illness, but the week before she passed, she sent a hair sample to an independent lab in Chicago."
The room fell into an absolute, suffocating silence.
Even Derek, groaning on the floor, stopped moving. He stared at Helen in sheer, horrified disbelief. "Helen... you said Emily died of lupus. You told me she was sick..."
"Shut up, you idiot!" Helen screamed, losing all composure.
"Emily knew she wouldn't survive to see the lab results," Sarah continued, tears shining in her eyes. "So she hid the backup drive in her personal jewelry box and gave me the key. On this drive is the recorded video Emily took from her hospital bed, detailing every threat you made against her, every financial discrepancy, and her final will appointing me as temporary emergency custodian if anything ever happened to Nathan."
I looked at Helen, the woman who had lived under my roof, who had smiled at my wife's funeral, who had pretended to weep as they lowered Emily into the earth.
She hadn't just tried to destroy my daughters.
She had murdered my wife.
A roar of agony and rage tore from my throat as I stepped toward Helen. But before I could touch her, Calvin stepped in, holding me back with both arms.
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"Don't do it, Nathan!" Calvin shouted. "Don't give her an easy way out! Let the law bury her for the rest of her miserable life!"
Helen lunged toward the window, attempting to smash the glass, but Calvin tripped her to the floor, pinning her down and securing her wrists with heavy-duty tactical cuffs.
