Chapter 9 - The Doctor's Secret
Gertrude shrieked like a wounded animal when Mason offered to trade her for his own freedom.
"You ungrateful little rat!" she screamed, lunging toward him before an agent held her back.
Mason did not even look at her.
"She set up offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands," Mason confessed rapidly.
"Kenneth funneled the embezzled company money through her accounts to avoid taxes, and she kept twenty percent for herself."
The lead FBI agent smiled and signaled his team.
"Arrest the aunt, too," the agent ordered.
Gertrude fought and kicked as they placed the heavy steel cuffs on her wrists.
Brenda was sobbing uncontrollably in the back of a police cruiser, her wealthy, perfect life completely destroyed.
Kenneth was staring blankly at the grass, finally realizing he had lost absolutely everything.
I turned to Mr. Abernathy, feeling a massive weight lift from my shoulders.
"Is the house still on the market?" I asked him.
"Actually, I accepted an all-cash offer an hour ago," Abernathy replied with a slight smile.
"The new owners want Kenneth's belongings on the curb by tomorrow morning."
I nodded, feeling no sympathy for the people who had tried to lock me in a psychiatric ward.
"Make sure a moving company packs their things in cheap cardboard boxes," I instructed.
The FBI agents loaded my treacherous family members into separate vehicles and drove them away in a procession of flashing red and blue lights.
The quiet suburban street returned to its peaceful silence.
I got back into my town car and headed home to my sanctuary.
When I arrived, my sick neighbor was sitting on my front porch, holding the bowl of soup I had made her yesterday.
"Are you alright, Mrs. Gable?" she asked kindly.
"I saw a lot of commotion earlier."
I sat down next to her in the rocking chair and took a deep breath of the crisp afternoon air.
"I am perfectly fine, dear," I smiled.
"I just had to take out some very heavy trash."
The nightmare was finally over, and I had protected the legacy my husband worked so hard to build.
But as I walked inside to hang up my coat, my landline phone began to ring.
I answered it, expecting it to be Mr. Abernathy calling with an update on the arrests.
Instead, a chilling, unfamiliar voice echoed on the other end of the line.
May you like
"You handled Kenneth beautifully, Mrs. Gable," the man whispered.
"But we both know Kenneth wasn't the one who actually orchestrated the embezzlement."
