Chapter 9 - The Ghost in the Foyer
The shattered glass covered the hardwood floor, dark red wine bleeding into the expensive Persian rug.
I stared at the man standing in the foyer, my mind completely rejecting the impossible image in front of me.
Richard was dead.
I had spoken to the surgeon. I had been arrested for his murder. I had watched the police arrest his killer.
Yet, he was standing in our home, looking incredibly pale and clutching his chest, but undeniably alive.
"You look like you've seen a ghost, Maggie," Richard rasped, a bitter, twisted smile forming on his lips.
He locked the heavy oak door behind him and leaned heavily against the wall.
"How?" I whispered, my voice completely abandoning me.
"Dr. Aris pronounced you dead."
Richard slowly took off his fedora, tossing it onto the console table.
"Dr. Aris is on my payroll, Margaret," he explained with a terrifying calmness.
"I paid him a million dollars from my offshore account to fake my death certificate and smuggle me out the back of the hospital."
He walked painfully into the living room, stepping carefully over the broken glass.
"Brooke actually did inject me with potassium, but the dose wasn't high enough to kill me immediately."
"I woke up while they were trying to stabilize me."
"I realized it was the perfect opportunity to disappear completely."
I backed away slowly, my heart hammering furiously against my ribs.
"Why would you fake your own death?" I demanded.
"You had everything!"
Richard scoffed loudly, pouring himself a massive glass of scotch from the bar cart.
"I didn't have everything, Maggie."
"Daniel Han was trying to steal my firm, Brooke was a corporate spy, and you were quietly hiring private investigators to ruin me in divorce court."
He took a slow sip of his drink, his gray eyes turning incredibly dark and menacing.
"I knew the walls were closing in."
"So, I let everyone believe I was dead."
"I let you take the fall for the murder, hoping you would rot in prison while I vanished to the Cayman Islands with the hidden accounts."
He gestured vaguely toward the window, where the police had just arrested Brooke an hour ago.
"But you managed to wiggle your way out of the murder charge and get Brooke arrested instead."
"You always were entirely too clever for your own good."
I glared at the monster I had been married to for three decades.
"You set up your own murder, let your mistress go to prison, and tried to frame your wife," I summarized, disgust dripping from every word.
"And now what?"
"You can't touch the real estate portfolio because I legally secured it in Emily's blind trust."
Richard laughed, a harsh, ugly sound that echoed through the empty house.
"I don't care about the real estate portfolio, Margaret."
"That was just the public face of my wealth."
He reached into his trench coat and pulled out a small, metallic flash drive.
"This drive contains the encrypted access codes to over eighty million dollars in untraceable cryptocurrency."
"I embezzled it from Daniel Han's initial investment fund over the last six months."
He smiled wickedly.
"I came back to the house tonight to retrieve my hidden passports from the wall safe in the study."
"And to ensure there are absolutely no loose ends."
He reached into his other pocket and pulled out a suppressed pistol.
He aimed it directly at my chest.
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"I am truly sorry it has to end this way, Maggie."
"But a dead man can't afford to leave witnesses."
