“Yes.”
“No.”
Trevor looked at me.
“Rachel—”
“No.”
Detective Brooks nodded.
“That’s your decision.”
She paused.
“But there’s something else.”
“What?”
“Margaret claims Emma saw more than she told us.”
I looked toward the hallway.
“How much more?”
“She says Emma was in the house for nearly two hours.”
I felt a chill.
“Emma told us she saw the bottles.”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
“Margaret won’t say.”
I stood.
“I’ll talk to her.”
Trevor stared at me.
“Are you sure?”
“No.”
I looked at the detective.
“But I’ll do it.”
Margaret sat behind glass.
She looked at me for a long time.
“You came.”
“Say what you know.”
She smiled faintly.
“Still giving orders.”
“You killed my sons.”
Her expression didn’t change.
“I didn’t want them to die.”
“But you gave them the drug.”
“I wanted them to sleep.”
“You poisoned me.”
“I wanted you calm.”
“You drugged Trevor.”
“I wanted him to think clearly.”
I stared at her.
“You don’t get to redefine what you did.”
Her jaw tightened.
“You were destroying him.”
“He was an adult.”
“He was my son.”
“And I was his wife.”
She leaned toward the glass.
“You think you won.”
“I don’t.”
“You think Trevor belongs to you.”
“He belongs to himself.”
For the first time, she looked almost amused.
“You still don’t understand.”
“Then explain.”
She sat back.
“Ask Emma what she saw after I made the bottles.”
I felt my throat tighten.
“What did she see?”
“Ask her about the man.”
“What man?”
Margaret smiled.
“The man your husband told you he had never met.”
I stared at her.
“Who?”
She didn’t answer.
Instead, she said:
“That is why I did it.”
“Why did you do what?”
“Because if I told Trevor the truth, he would choose you.”
My stomach dropped.
“What truth?”
Margaret’s eyes shifted toward the door.
And for the first time since the funeral, she looked afraid again.
“I wasn’t the only one.”
Part V — Final Confrontation
Emma remembered the man.
But not his name.
She remembered his shoes.
Black.
Shiny.
She remembered his voice.
“Grandma called him Mr. Cole.”
Detective Brooks searched the records.
There was no Mr. Cole connected to Margaret’s business.
Then Emma remembered something else.
“He had Daddy’s watch.”
Trevor looked at his wrist.
His face went blank.
The watch was gone.
He had lost it six months earlier.
Or so he had thought.
He remembered leaving it at Margaret’s house.
She had said she hadn’t seen it.
Detective Brooks searched Margaret’s belongings again.
The watch was found inside a locked drawer.
Inside the watchband was a tiny folded piece of paper.
A phone number.
And beneath it, three initials.
T.H.
Trevor stared at the initials.
His father’s name had been Thomas Hale.
Dead for sixteen years.
“My father?”
Detective Brooks shook her head.
“Your father died.”
“I know.”
“Then who is T.H.?”
Trevor didn’t answer.
He couldn’t.
The answer came from the phone records.
The number belonged to Thomas Hale’s former business partner.
A man named Victor Cole.
Margaret had been working with him for years.
And Victor Cole had one reason to want Trevor under his control.
The company.
Trevor’s company.
His father had left part ownership to Trevor when he died.
Margaret had managed it until Trevor turned thirty.
At thirty, Trevor had taken control.
Cole had wanted the shares.
Trevor had refused.
The twins had not been the beginning.
They had been the leverage.
Margaret had intended to create a custody crisis, force Trevor to rely on her, then use the insurance money and legal pressure to regain control of his company.
But there was more.
The insurance policy wasn’t the only financial motive.
Cole had been moving money through a subsidiary.
Trevor had recently discovered irregularities.
He had planned to confront the board.
If Trevor lost his wife, lost his children, and became emotionally unstable, the board could be persuaded to remove him.
Margaret had known.
She had been trying to save the company.
Her version of saving it.
At least, that was what she told herself.
But Detective Brooks found the final piece.
A recorded call.
Margaret and Cole.
Recorded automatically by the private investigator’s system.
Cole’s voice was calm.
Margaret’s was shaking.
“You promised me no one would get hurt.”
“No one was supposed to die.”
“The twins did.”
A pause.
Then Cole said:
“Then make Rachel responsible.”
Margaret had answered:
“Trevor won’t forgive me.”
Cole laughed.
“Trevor doesn’t need to forgive you. He needs to need you.”
The recording ended.
But it wasn’t enough.
Margaret had confessed to the murder.
Cole had helped plan it.
Yet he was still free.
And he knew we had the recording.
Detective Brooks told us he was leaving town.
“Where?”
“Airport.”
Trevor looked at me.
“We have to stop him.”
“No,” I said.
Trevor frowned.
“We can’t let him disappear.”
“You can’t go after him.”
“I won’t.”
“You’re angry.”
“I am.”
“And you’re grieving.”
“I know.”
I looked at him.
“Then let the police do their job.”
He nodded.
That was the first time he listened without arguing.
But the police couldn’t move fast enough.
Cole had already left the city.
His car was found abandoned near the airport.
His phone was off.
His bank accounts were emptied.
The detective’s team believed he had another identity.
The trail was going cold.
Then Emma said something that changed everything.
She was sitting at the kitchen table drawing.
Two small figures.
One tall figure.
A house.
And a black car.
I asked her what it was.
“Grandma’s house.”
“Who’s the man?”
“Mr. Cole.”
“Where is he going?”
She pointed to the black car.
“Here.”
I leaned closer.
There was a small drawing of a building.
A red door.
“What’s that?”
“Where Daddy keeps the important papers.”
Trevor looked up.
“Our office?”
Emma nodded.
“Grandma said Mr. Cole was going there.”
Detective Brooks was called immediately.
The company office was searched.
Cole wasn’t there.
But his car was in the parking lot.
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