Chapter 4 - SISTER AGAINST SISTER
I walked back into the house slowly, every nerve screaming. Keep calm, I told myself. Don’t let her know. Not yet.
Elena was exactly where I’d left her, sitting in the kitchen, staring out the window. She turned when I came in, her expression soft, concerned.
"Everything okay?" she asked.
I nodded, keeping my face neutral. "Just… Marcus is denying everything. As you’d expect."
Elena sighed, leaning back. "Of course he is. He’s always been manipulative, Adrian. You know that. He knows how to make himself look like the good guy."
"And you?" I said, keeping my voice light. "You’ve always been the honest one, haven’t you?"
She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. "I try to be. Especially where Lily is concerned. I’d never do anything to hurt her. Or you."
Arthur’s words echoed in my head. Every payment. Every single one. For months.
"Right," I said. "Of course not."
I went upstairs to check on Lily. She was asleep again, Teddy resting on the pillow beside her, the blue light dark. I stood there a moment, watching her, thinking about Elena downstairs. Thinking about Elena alone with Lily. About how easy it would have been for her to do something while I was outside.
I pulled out my phone and texted Arthur. Send me the records. Now.
Ten minutes later, they arrived. Spreadsheets. Dates. Amounts. Every transaction traced directly from Grace’s account to Elena’s. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Over six months. The final transfer—the largest one—had been withdrawn the day before Grace died.
I felt sick.
Grace hadn’t been poisoned for a few thousand. She had been killed for the whole inheritance. Elena had been draining Grace’s account for months. And when Grace found out… she had been silenced.
Downstairs, I heard the front door open. Then close. Footsteps. Elena leaving.
I hurried to the window just in time to see her car pulling away. She was leaving. Without saying goodbye. Without checking on Lily one last time.
I ran downstairs and found her phone on the kitchen table. A text message was open on the screen, sent minutes earlier.
*He suspects. Not for long. Transfer phase two tonight. Meet me at the place. Bring what’s left of the bear’s data.*
My heart stopped.
*Bring what’s left of the bear’s data.*
She knew. She knew Teddy had recorded everything. She knew the police had taken the bear. But maybe… maybe there was more.
I rushed upstairs to Lily’s room. She was still asleep. I picked up Teddy gently, turned him over, ran my fingers along the seams. There. Hidden beneath the paw, separate from the camera lens, was a tiny slot. And beside it, taped securely inside the lining, was a second memory card.
Grace had made a backup.
I pulled it out carefully, my hands shaking. She had hidden it where no one—not Vanessa, not Elena, not even I—would think to look. In the one place everyone saw every day.
I drove straight to Arthur’s office with the memory card tucked safely in my pocket, leaving Lily in Clara’s care with strict instructions to lock every door and admit no one.
Arthur and I sat in his dimly lit conference room as we loaded the files onto his screen. Hours of footage. Days of recordings. Teddy had been rolling almost constantly.
Most of it was harmless. Lily playing. Grace reading. Me leaving for work. But then we found it. Dated two days before Grace died.
The camera angle was low, pointed toward Grace’s bed. She lay there, weak, breathing shallowly. The door opened. Elena walked in.
My sister. Wearing gloves. Holding a small vial.
Grace opened her eyes. She saw Elena. And she wasn’t surprised.
"You took the money," Grace said, her voice barely audible. "Every penny. I know it was you."
Elena didn’t flinch. She stood by the bed, calm as could be. "You had so much, Grace. More than enough. Adrian would never have noticed. Why did you have to go digging?"
"Because it’s Lily’s future," Grace whispered. "Not yours. And if you’ve helped Vanessa hurt her… I won’t let you get away with it."
Elena laughed. A cold, sharp sound. "Vanessa is a tool. Nothing more. Once you were gone, I was going to cut her loose too. But you… you had to be clever. You had to hide things." She uncorked the vial. "This won’t hurt for long. And then everything will be mine. And Adrian will be so grief-stricken, so grateful to his devoted sister… he’ll sign whatever I tell him to."
Grace looked directly into the camera—directly at Teddy—and whispered, "Remember."
Then Elena poured the liquid into Grace’s IV line.
I watched my wife take her last breath on that screen. I watched Elena check for a pulse. I watched her wipe everything down and leave the room, closing the door softly behind her.
Arthur sat beside me, silent, horrified.
I sat there, numb, staring at the woman I had shared parents with, the woman who had held my hand at Grace’s funeral, the woman who had just sat in my kitchen and lied to my face while accusing Marcus.
May you like
And then I understood. Vanessa had never been the mastermind. She had been hired help. A distraction. A patsy.
Elena had been pulling every string.
