Chapter 1 - The Confession of Monsters
The cold radiating from the checkered stone tiles seeped into my bones, but it was nothing compared to the ice in Julian’s voice.
Beatrice stepped forward, the heels of her designer shoes clicking sharply against the quartz. She looked down at me, her face contorted into a mask of pure disgust. "I told you, Julian. I told you this little street rat would never adapt to our world. She is fragile. Pathetic."
"You were right, Mother," Julian sighed, pulling a pristine white handkerchief from his breast pocket and dabbing a microscopic speck of dust from his lapel. "But she served her purpose. Her father’s company is now fully integrated into Hawthorne Industries. The merger is complete. Her signature on the final transfer documents was all we needed."
I let out a ragged cough, tasting copper. "You... you killed him," I gasped, the words tearing at my bruised throat.
Julian crouched down, bringing his immaculate face inches from mine. "Of course I did, my sweet wife. Did you really think your father’s sudden heart attack was a tragic twist of fate? A few drops of digitalis in his evening scotch over six months. Undetectable. A flawless medical anomaly."
Beatrice laughed, a high, grating sound. "And you, you naive little fool, ran straight into Julian's arms for comfort. You handed him the keys to the kingdom because you thought he loved you."
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"We sever the cameras, lock the gates, and in the morning, our private physician will declare you died of a tragic, sudden aneurysm," Julian whispered, his eyes void of any human empathy. "A grieving widower inherits the rest. It is a perfect tragedy."
What Julian didn't know was that resting against my collarbone, tangled in the shredded silk of my gown, was a custom-cut sapphire pendant. It wasn't just a family heirloom. It was a military-grade transmitter. And every horrific word they just spoke was currently being recorded, encrypted, and beamed to a secure server.
