“Mr. Larson, I’m sorry for your loss, but we need to take the body for investigation. Please cooperate with us.”
Two officers approached with a stretcher, but Henry refused to let go. He held me tightly, stopping anyone from coming close.
The officers said, “Mr. Larson, please step aside. We need to conduct an investigation. And we’ll need you to come with us to the
station.”
The night was deep and cold when Henry finally stumbled out of the police station with his body reeking of blood.
In his trembling hand, he clutched a bracelet.
Henry had personally designed the bracelet for us when we went to Plerias that year–one for each of us. Delicately engraved on
the silver bracelet were Margaret, his, and my initials.
Ever since receiving the bracelet, I had never once taken mine off.
But Henry’s? His love for me faded bit by bit as he kept defending Bethany.
In the end, he ripped the bracelet off, hurled it at my face, and spat, “Only an idiot would wear this.”
“You’re a fucking monster, Henry Larson!” He staggered, then–without warning–struck himself hard across the face. Regret
and guilt twisted inside his eyes like a bottomless pit.
He clenched his teeth and declared, “Jess, I swear I’ll make them pay for you and for Mom. I’ll make every last one of them pay!”
Bethany’s sharp voice cut through the silence somewhere in the depths of an abandoned factory.
“Are you all out of your damn minds? Killing them was bad enough, but you actually left a witness?”
1/3
Chapter
+15 BONUS
“Does that even matter? That old hag is now blind and mute while the other one’s totally dead. Larson Group’s fortune is all yours
and Derrick’s now–what are you so worried about?”
Bethany grew irritated. “Henry’s already acting differently toward me. And now you guys have gone and turned this into a
goddamn spectacle. What if he starts suspecting me one day?”
“Just relax. Pay us what we agreed on, and the guys we hired will keep their mouths shut. What’s there to stress about?” one of
the burglars sneered with a broad grin.
“Money, money, money! That’s all you people ever care about! Take it and get the hell out!” Bethany sneered and shoved a
suitcase at them.
As one of the burglars flipped it open, his expression twisted with anger.
“This isn’t what we agreed on, Bethany,” he growled. “We agreed on ten million dollars! Why is there only half?”
“Ten million dollars was for tying up all the loose ends. But you screwed that up and left me with a huge problem, didn’t you?
“And now you think you’re still getting the full amount? Dream on!”
“You-”
“Police! Freeze!” A voice thundered through the factory, cutting him off.
In an instant, officers swarmed out of the shadows with guns drawn.
“Bethany!” Henry stumbled forward.
He had heard every last word of their conversation. When the police first told him Bethany might be involved, he refused to believe it.
Even now, after seeing it with his own eyes, his mind struggled to connect those cold, venomous words to the woman he had always known as gentle and loving.
He had cherished her–down to his very bones and put her above everything. But what had Bethany done in return?
She hired killers to murder his wife and had his own mother brutalized, all for money.
Bethany’s face turned as white as a sheet when she saw Henry. “No, Henry! It’s not what you think!”
Her voice cracked with desperation as she wailed. “They set me up! Henry, you have to believe me–I would never hurt Jessica!”
Bethany’s face was flushed bright red as she cried, and she claimed she had been threatened, that she never meant for any of this to happen.
But this time, Henry didn’t believe her.
This time, it was laughable. She had fed him pathetic lies over and over again, and he had swallowed them whole.
Henry glared at Bethany. If the officers weren’t holding him back, he might have strangled her right then and there.
“Bethany, I’ll ask you this for the one last time. All those years you swore Jess and my mother hurt you. Was any of it true?”
