Chapter 4 - Darker Secrets
Elena placed the USB drive on the mahogany table next to Arthur's hand.
"What is that?" Arthur asked, his voice now sounding broken, aged ten years in ten minutes.
"That," Elena said, "contains the audio recordings from the master bedroom of this very house. From the microphone hidden inside the digital clock on the nightstand."
Mark’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. "You... you bugged the house?!"
"I protected my home," Elena corrected sharply. "And thank God I did. Because if I hadn't, Arthur would have died next month thinking his heart was failing naturally."
The room dropped into absolute, agonizing silence.
Arthur slowly lifted his head. "What did you say?"
Elena walked over to Arthur, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Arthur, three months ago, when your doctor increased your dosage of heart medication, did you wonder why you were feeling weaker every day?"
Arthur stared at her, unblinking. "Evelyn... Evelyn gives me my evening pills every night..."
"Listen to track four on that drive," Elena said gently. "In track four, Evelyn and Mark discuss changing your prescriptions. They traded your standard beta-blockers for high-dosage compounds ordered through an unlicensed pharmacy in Panama. They weren't just waiting for you to pass away from old age, Arthur. They were accelerating the timeline so Mark could assume full control of the estate before the annual audit."
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Evelyn let out a choked scream. "Lies! She's lying! She wants to murder us all! She wants the estate for herself!"
"I don't need your estate, Evelyn," Elena replied with icy disdain. "My family owned half the real estate in this city before Arthur ever made his first million. I married Mark because I believed he was a good man. But you two... you two are parasites."
