CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 5
“Elena?” Victor whispered.
I could barely lift my head, but I made myself look at him.
Serena stepped backward on the screen.
“No,” she said. “No, that’s not possible.”
Adrian’s voice was quiet.
“My daughter and grandson survived.”
Victor’s eyes jumped to him.
“Daughter?”
“That is the least of your problems.”
Victor tried to recover.
“She’s confused. She fell. She’s medicated.”
Nurse Rachel stepped into view.
“She has been conscious enough to identify both of you,” she said.
Adrian placed the insurance claim document beside my hospital bed where the camera could see it.
“You filed for the payout while pretending to mourn her.”
Victor’s mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Then Adrian said the sentence that changed everything.
“Police are already at the funeral home.”
On the screen, Victor turned toward the entrance.
Two officers walked through the lobby doors.
Serena started crying immediately.
Victor did not.
He stared at me with hatred so sharp it almost felt like touch.
“You should have stayed dead,” he said.
Adrian’s face went still.
The officer beside Victor heard it.
So did the recording.
So did every investigator who would later sit in a courtroom and watch my husband condemn himself with his own mouth.
I closed my eyes.
Not from fear.
May you like
From relief.
The lie was over.
