Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 67432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67432 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
“Seriously?” Archie said, anger still flushing his face a bright pink.
“I’m genuinely sorry. But I wasn’t that far off, actually.”
I cocked my head. “What do you mean?”
His eyes seemed to be locked on Wendy while her gaze appeared to be locked on the floor. Why did she seem so nervous? What the hell was going on?
“I thought that the video proved Archie was there, but I was wrong. The video was meant to look like Archie was there, wasn’t it, Wendy?”
All eyes turned to Wendy, who still wouldn’t look up.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Archie asked. I looked to my father, who was watching this all in a simmering silence, his fists tight at his side.
“I thought the person in the video was you because of the necklace and because you’d know where the camera was installed. But I was wrong—you wouldn’t know there was a nanny camera because you weren’t the one who installed it, were you? That would have been Wendy, who I’m assuming makes house calls whenever a client’s important to you, am I correct?”
Archie blinked as if trying to regain his vision after a flash grenade. “I, uh, yeah, that’s right, but…”
“And the months you lost your necklace are likely during the same time your mother died. The same time the necklace appears in that video, on a man who’s taller than you and who happens to have a tattoo on their arm. A black-and-white tattoo of an octopus, with the tentacles wrapping around the wrist. Sound familiar to you?”
I watched as the pieces started to fall in place, my brother shaking his head and looking to his wife. “Lito?”
She finally tore her gaze up from the floor. Her eyes were full of unshed tears, her bottom lip quivering. “I’m so sorry. It was his idea, Archie. Please, you have to believe me. It was all Lito’s idea.”
“You did it? You killed my mother?” It was like flipping a switch inside a pitch-black room. Light flooded the space, shining on the cold and merciless truth.
“I didn’t—it was Lito. He’s right there on the camera.”
“But you were with him every step of the way, weren’t you, Wendy? You knew to take the camera, you knew to give Lito your husband’s necklace, you knew that the mountain of debt you two were piled under would be a great motive to pin the murder on Archie. So you took the nanny cam, and you emailed a blogger, leaking information to set up a narrative. One you could use to land your husband in jail, which would leave you and Lito free to enjoy whatever spoils Amelia left in the will.”
My jaw dropped. Wendy’s tears flowed freely now. She looked like a shadow trying to press herself back into the wall. It was her. She had orchestrated my mother’s death, all so that she could run off with the bag and her side guy, leaving my brother framed and behind bars.
An unfiltered, raw, and crimson kind of rage started to fill me. I wanted to throw myself across the room, shout at her, ask her how she could be so monstrous. I wanted to cry and fall to the ground. I wanted my mom back. I’d never be able to hug her, or hear her voice, or laugh at her jokes, or reminisce about a childhood story, or— “You fucking bitch.” The words flew out of me like daggers. I’d never called a woman that, not in the manner I just used, not with the aggression that fueled my never-ending well of pain. “How could you?”
Kendall was on Wendy before anyone could blink. She had a fistful of Wendy’s hair. Jen screamed for her to stop, grabbing at our sister’s elbow but getting thrown backward. Jackson tried to intervene, but it wasn’t until my father stepped in that they were able to pry Kendall off a still-crying Wendy.
An arm settled on my lower back. I turned to look into Eric’s worried eyes, and I started to cry, my head falling on his chest, his shirt soaking up the tears. He wrapped me into a tight hug, and for a moment, I felt like everything would be alright.
“You did good, Colt.” Eric kissed the top of my head. Wendy was shouting, my grandma was crying, and Krystine and Matt both had to leave the room. It was complete and utter chaos, but being in Eric’s embrace provided a bit of a shield. “You recognized something was off and weren’t scared to ask for help.”
I put my ear to his chest, hearing the thump of his rapidly beating heart. Archie was on the phone, a hand on the back of his neck as he looked at his wife the same way a stranger would look at someone trying to rob them. I didn’t realize until a couple of minutes later that Archie had been on the phone with the police.