Chapter 2 - The Motive in the Shadows
We didn't go to the police. Not immediately.
“If we hand this over right now, Greg will lawyer up,” Daniel said, pacing our kitchen, his mechanic’s intuition taking over. “He comes from old money. He has resources. He’ll claim the footage is tampered with, or he’ll flee the country before they even process the warrant. We need to know why, Sarah. A man doesn't just poison his in-laws for fun. There is a paper trail.”
Daniel was right.
The next morning, while Daniel stayed at the hospital to guard my parents' room, I drove to my parents' house. I ignored the police tape across the door, slipping inside. The house still smelled like stale air and tragedy.
I walked straight into my father’s home office. My dad kept meticulous records. Everything was filed alphabetically in a heavy oak cabinet.
I bypassed the tax returns and the medical files, pulling open the drawer labeled Legal.
I found their Last Will and Testament, updated just three months ago. I skimmed through the legal jargon until I reached the distribution of assets. My parents had built a modest, comfortable life, but a few years ago, my father had sold a patent he developed during his engineering days.
I stared at the number on the paper.
Four point two million dollars.
My breath hitched. I knew they were comfortable, but I had no idea they were sitting on millions. The will stated that the assets were to be divided evenly between Chloe and me. But there was an addendum, recently attached.
“In the event of Helen and Arthur’s passing, if Sarah or Chloe are deceased, the remaining portion of the estate shall transfer entirely to the surviving spouse of the deceased child.”
I frowned, digging deeper into the desk. Beneath a stack of blank envelopes, I found a letter from a private investigator my father had hired.
The letter detailed Greg’s financial situation.
Greg wasn’t a successful investment banker anymore. He had been quietly fired six months ago for gross negligence. His accounts were overdrawn. He had leveraged his and Chloe’s house, maxed out their credit, and owed over two million dollars to a private equity firm that was threatening to seize his assets.
My father had found out. The final page was a drafted letter from my dad to Greg, stating that he was going to tell Chloe the truth and cut Greg out of the will completely by Friday.
May you like
Greg had poisoned them on Wednesday.
He needed them dead before the ink on the new will could dry. He needed Chloe’s inheritance to save his own skin.
