Chapter 15 - The Matriarch's Trap
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The room felt like it lost all oxygen.
My own mother had paid fifty thousand dollars to have my husband murdered four days before I gave birth to his children.
"Denise was released on bail two days ago," Thomas Sterling said, standing up rapidly. "Where is she now?!"
"Federal marshals went to her residence an hour ago to re-arrest her," Agent Chen replied, pulling out her radio. "Her house was empty. She cut her ankle monitoring bracelet and vanished."
"She’s fleeing the country," Logan said, walking toward the window. "Or she’s coming to finish what she started."
"She won't get near this house," Agent Chen assured us. "We have armed tactical units posted at every entrance to this property."
Suddenly, my cell phone chimed on the table.
It was an incoming video call from an encrypted number.
Logan nodded at me to answer it, while Agent Chen signaled her tech team outside to trace the signal.
I pressed accept and held the phone up.
My mother’s face appeared on the screen. She was sitting in the back of a moving car, wearing a dark headscarf and sunglasses. Her face was cold, stripped of all motherly emotion.
"Hello, Clara," Denise said smoothly.
"You killed Ethan," I choked out, my voice dripping with pure hatred. "You paid that man to ram his truck!"
Denise let out a dark, bitter chuckle. "Ethan was going to put Richard and me in prison, Clara. He was going to leave us with nothing. Did you really think I was going to let an outsider destroy thirty years of our family's wealth?"
"You're a monster," I sobbed.
"I am a survivor," Denise corrected coldly. "And now that your father is locked up, I’m taking what's left of the family funds and leaving. But before I go, I wanted to leave you a little wedding gift."
"What are you talking about?!" I demanded.
May you like
"Check the timber cabin on the south edge of your property," Denise smiled cruelly. "The one Ethan built for his father. You might want to hurry before the timer runs out."
The video screen went black as she disconnected the call.
