Chapter 3 - The Cousin's Secret
Emily removed her expensive leather gloves and placed them neatly on the entry table.
She did not look guilty, afraid, or even slightly surprised by the chaotic scene.
"Emily, what have you done with Claire's money?" Uncle Robert yelled at his daughter.
Emily rolled her eyes as if she were being scolded for a minor inconvenience.
"I took what was rightfully owed to me," Emily answered with a cold smirk.
"That money was meant to feed my baby!" I shouted, stepping toward her.
Emily looked at my faded clothes with absolute disgust.
"Your dead husband owed me a lot more than just $180,000," Emily sneered.
The mention of Evan sent a sharp pain straight through my chest.
"Evan did not owe you anything, he barely even spoke to you," I fired back.
"Evan was blackmailing my mother and your mother," Emily revealed casually.
Denise dropped the kitchen knife onto the floor, her hands shaking violently.
"Shut your mouth right now, Emily!" Denise screamed in pure panic.
Grandma Margaret stepped between me and the rest of the treacherous family.
"Explain this alleged blackmail right now, or I will have you destroyed," Grandma threatened Emily.
Emily calmly reached into the deep pocket of her designer coat.
She pulled out a small, transparent plastic evidence bag.
Inside the bag was a shattered silver wrist watch with dark brown stains on the metal band.
I stopped breathing the moment I saw it.
It was the engraved watch I had given Evan on our wedding day.
The police told me it had been completely lost in the fiery wreckage of his road accident.
"Where did you get that?" I whispered, tears suddenly burning my eyes.
"Evan did not die in a random tragic accident on the highway," Emily laughed cruelly.
"He found out about a massive real estate fraud that my mother and your mother committed last year," she explained.
Patricia whimpered on the floor, confirming the horrifying truth with her silence.
"He demanded the money to stay quiet, so we had to get rid of him," Emily said without blinking.
I felt my knees buckle, but Grandma Margaret grabbed my arm to keep me standing.
"You murdered my husband?" I choked out, staring at my own family.
"I simply hired a professional to run his car off the cliff," Emily shrugged.
"I needed the $180,000 to pay the final invoice to the fixer who destroyed his brakes," she added.
"You just confessed to murder in front of two corporate attorneys," Robert said, pulling out his cell phone to call 911.
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Emily smiled a terrifyingly wicked smile and pulled a small remote control from her pocket.
"I disabled the cell service and the landlines before I walked inside," Emily announced.
