Chapter 13 - Anatomy of a Coward
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I stared at the broken man on the screen, feeling a strange mix of profound disgust and cold clarity.
This was the man I had reshaped my entire life for. This was the man for whom I had turned down a lucrative partnership at my firm's Chicago office eight years ago because he claimed moving would “stress his career.”
He hadn't been protecting his career. He had been terrified of leaving his mother's dark orbit.
“Did Claire know about Northstar?” I asked calmly.
Adrian looked up, tears streaking through the dirt on his cheeks. “No. Claire didn't know anything about the trust or the shell companies. I just… I told her I was coming into an inheritance so she would stay with me.”
“And the balcony?” I asked, my voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. “Whose brilliant idea was it to loosen the bolts and make it look like an accident?”
Adrian froze. He looked left and right nervously, as if expecting prison guards to strike him.
“Answer me, Adrian,” I commanded.
“It was… it was Mom,” he whispered, his voice shaking violently. “After you discovered the missing financial statements from our joint account last month, you said you were going to hire a private auditor. Mom panicked. She said if an auditor looked into our taxes, they would find Northstar and trace the trust money she had been spending.”
“So she convinced you that killing me was your only way out,” I stated coldly.
“She said we could split the double-indemnity life insurance payout!” Adrian cried, wrapping his arms around himself. “She said we could pay off Northstar’s debts and start completely over! I didn't want to hurt you, Hannah! I loved you!”
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“You don't murder people you love, Adrian,” I said, my voice dead and devoid of emotion. “You murder people you view as obstacles to your own cowardly comfort.”
I signaled to Detective Morris to cut the video feed. The screen went black, erasing Adrian's sobbing face from my sight forever.
