Chapter 6 - The Lethal Truth
At 9:00 AM sharp, the heavy glass doors of First Trust Bank unlocked.
Nico and I walked straight into the vault area. He had left Ruby at the house under the watchful eye of Mrs. Turner and four armed security guards who had quietly arrived before dawn.
The bank manager looked nervous when he saw Nico, but one look at the brass key and he silently led us into the private viewing room, leaving us alone with a long, rectangular metal box.
Nico set the box on the polished table.
He didn't open it immediately. He stared at the metal lid, a muscle feathering in his jaw.
"Whatever is in here," Nico said quietly, "she hid it from me because she thought she had to protect me."
"She loved you," I said, standing beside him. "She was trying to protect Ruby."
Nico unlocked the box and threw open the lid.
Inside lay a single, thick manila envelope, sealed with red wax.
Nico broke the seal and pulled out the contents.
It wasn't a letter.
It was a stack of medical records. Detailed, printed lab results from an independent toxicology clinic in Switzerland.
Nico frowned, flipping through the pages. I leaned in, trying to understand the complex medical jargon.
"These are Beth's blood panels from the last six months of her life," Nico muttered. "But... she didn't have these done at her regular hospital."
He flipped to the final page. Clipped to it was a handwritten note on blue stationary.
Nico recognized the handwriting instantly. He read it aloud, his voice trembling.
“Nico, if you are reading this, I am gone. I didn't want to tell you because I knew you would kill her, and I couldn't let Ruby’s father go to prison. It wasn't the cancer that was making me so weak at the end. It was the nurse you hired.”
My breath hitched.
"The private nurse?" I asked. "The one who stayed at the house?"
Nico's eyes scanned the page furiously, his face turning a sickly shade of gray.
“I sent my blood samples to a private lab. The nurse wasn't giving me my pain medication. She was giving me heavy doses of a paralytic toxin. She was accelerating my death, Nico. I found a vial in her bag. Her name wasn't Sarah. I hired a private investigator before I got too weak to fight. Her real name is Brielle Monroe.”
The room spun.
"Brielle," I whispered, the horror washing over me like ice water. "She was the nurse?"
"She had brown hair back then," Nico choked out, staring at the paper. "She wore scrubs. Thick glasses. She was soft-spoken. I barely looked at her. I was so consumed with trying to save Beth, I just let the agency handle the staffing."
He dropped the paper onto the table.
"She didn't just target me after Beth died," Nico said, a terrifying, dark rage rolling off him in waves. "She killed my wife to clear the path. She murdered Beth."
Nico turned toward the door, his hands balled into fists so tight his knuckles were white.
"Nico, wait!" I grabbed his arm—my good arm. "We have the proof now! You can take this to the police. They will arrest her for murder!"
"The police tried to steal my daughter last night," Nico sneered, his eyes wild and dangerous. "I am not relying on a broken system. Brielle is going to answer to me."
His cell phone rang in his pocket.
He pulled it out. The caller ID said HOME.
He answered it on speaker. "Mrs. Turner, is everything okay?"
But it wasn't the housekeeper's voice that answered.
"Hello, darling."
Brielle’s voice echoed through the cold bank vault. It was calm. Sweet. Absolutely deranged.
"Brielle," Nico breathed, freezing in place. "Where are you?"
"Oh, I'm at the house," she said cheerfully. "Your security guards out front are very intimidating, but they didn't know about the old service entrance through the wine cellar, did they? Beth showed it to me once, when I was taking such good care of her."
Panic exploded in my chest. "Ruby!" I yelled toward the phone.
Brielle laughed. "Hannah! So glad you're there. Don't worry, the little brat is fine. She's locked in the master bathroom. But you see, I realized last night that I left something very important behind. I came back to get it, and poor Mrs. Turner got in my way. She's taking a little nap on the kitchen floor."
"If you touch either of them..." Nico started, his voice a low growl.
"I don't want to hurt anyone, Nico," Brielle interrupted coldly. "I just want what's mine. Marcus is an idiot. I don't need him. But I do need the key you just took out of that bank."
She knew.
"I found the slashed quilt on your sofa," Brielle explained. "I knew she hid the key. If you have it, you know what I did. So here is the deal, Nico. You bring me that toxicology report, and you let me walk out of this house with Marcus’s payout money from your safe. If you do that, Ruby lives."
"And if I don't?" Nico asked.
May you like
"Then I have a syringe in my pocket filled with the exact same medication I gave Beth," Brielle said sweetly. "It stops the heart in about four minutes. It looks exactly like natural cardiac arrest."
She hung up.
