Chapter 5 - THE ATTIC
Brandon ran.
The detective chased him upstairs.
I stayed behind, frozen in the hallway.
A moment later, I heard a crash.
Then shouting.
Brandon was arrested in the attic.
The black box was recovered.
Inside were documents.
Bank statements.
Insurance papers.
Photographs.
And a key.
The key belonged to a storage unit.
The detective opened the documents one by one.
The first showed money transfers.
The second showed messages between Brandon and Evelyn.
The third was a handwritten plan.
I read it twice.
I still couldn't understand the words.
PHASE ONE: MAKE SAMANTHA LOOK NEGLIGENT.
PHASE TWO: REMOVE THE CHILD.
PHASE THREE: WAIT FOR INSURANCE.
I felt sick.
The detective continued.
There were notes about my behavior.
My schedule.
My medications.
My friends.
Even my work.
They had been watching me.
For years.
The storage unit contained more.
A box of my old medication bottles.
A second phone.
A camera.
And a folder labeled:
SAMANTHA — MEDICAL HISTORY.
The police found photographs of me sleeping.
Taken inside my own bedroom.
I covered my mouth.
“Who took those?”
The detective didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
Brandon had been planning something long before the magnets.
But why had Evelyn targeted Nancy?
The answer came from the storage unit.
Inside was a letter from Evelyn.
I read it.
Brandon,
You promised me the inheritance would come to us.
I have sacrificed everything for you.
But Samantha keeps surviving.
The child is the only obstacle.
If the girl is gone, Samantha will collapse.
I stared at the page.
The detective looked at me.
“She wanted to destroy you emotionally.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
I pointed to the letter.
“She wanted my money.”
The investigation expanded.
Police discovered that Brandon had already spent thousands of dollars preparing a new life.
A house in another state.
A new business.
A nursery.
Everything had been planned.
The woman in the photograph, Claire, had been told I was dying.
But she had not known the truth.
When detectives questioned her, she handed them more evidence.
Messages.
Bank transfers.
Voice recordings.
Brandon had promised her everything.
My house.
My money.
My life insurance.
My daughter.
The last part made me sick.
He had planned to tell the court that I was an unstable mother.
The magnets would have been blamed on me.
He would have claimed I was careless.
Evelyn would have supported him.
And if Nancy had died?
The case would have become even easier.
I returned to the hospital.
Nancy was awake.
She looked at me.
“Mommy?”
I sat beside her.
“I’m here.”
“Is Daddy coming?”
I hesitated.
“No, sweetheart.”
“Is Grandma coming?”
“No.”
Nancy looked down.
“Did I do something bad?”
My heart broke.
I held her hand.
“None of this was your fault.”
She stared at me.
“Grandma said you would be sad if I told.”
I closed my eyes.
“Did she say anything else?”
Nancy nodded.
“She said Daddy would be happy if I disappeared.”
I felt the world go silent.
At that moment, the hospital door opened.
Detective Elliott stepped inside.
“We found something else.”
He placed a photograph on the table.
It showed Evelyn standing in our kitchen.
But she wasn't alone.
Beside her stood someone I knew.
May you like
Someone I trusted.
Someone who had been in our house the night before Nancy became sick.
